


How To Train Your Donghyuck

by Fox_155



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Dragons, Donghyuck's a Dragon, Fights, Imprinting, Inspired by How to Train Your Dragon, Lee Taeyong is Village Chief and stressed, M/M, Shapeshifting, Side Ships, Violence, but can shift, mark has low self-esteem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-10-27 02:37:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17758184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fox_155/pseuds/Fox_155
Summary: To prove himself as a worthy warrior in a village hunted down by Dragons, Mark, aka the resident Loser with a capital L, tries to take down the most feared Dragon of them all: A Night Fury!Killing a Dragon would immediately fix all his problems, smooth down the worry lines on his father’s face, and maybe even score him a date with his crush.But instead of a dead Dragon, Mark finds a new friend in the form of a big, black reptile, whose behaviour makes him question all the things his village people believe in. And then, there’s suddenly this snarky, yet cute boy he’s never seen before and who seems just a bit too… non-human.The How To Train Your Dragon Markhyuck AU with a few twists I wrote purely for my own entertainment, because sure af no one asked for this.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Italiano available: [How To Train Your Donghyuck (Ita)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20067760) by [Zoccpld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoccpld/pseuds/Zoccpld)



> Like the title suggests, this story is based on How To Train Your Dragon. I don’t think you have to know the films to understand it. 
> 
> I will reference to the Dragons by their species’ names, however it’s not really all that important which type of Dragon is in front of them to understand the story and I will explain specifics you’d need to know about them when necessary. If you are curious, there’s a great Wiki on HTTYD you could look them up in. Anything else I believe is understandable.
> 
> All ages are completely shuffled up, but I make it clear who’s how old – if it’s necessary.
> 
> I strooooongly recommend the HTTYD soundtrack, it’s amazing and perfect and sets the mood for this story - [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/1kTnC045mQqurTQvGMGpmU).
> 
> TW: Mark fully intents to take out the Night Fury at first, the killing of Dragons is mentioned through-out.

This is Berk.

It’s 12 days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing To Death. It’s located solidly on the meridian of Misery.

A simple village. In a word, sturdy. It’s been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. They have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets.

The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes.

They have Dragons.

Most people would leave. Not them. The village has… stubbornness issues.

 

Head of the village was Lee Taeyong. During his youth, he broke ten hearts a day – according to the stories. Honestly, looking at him, you could tell why. Even now, at 40, his skin was near flawless, a jaw sharp enough to cut through rocks – which it actually could, also according to the stories – and big eyes, that could make you want to crawl and fling yourself off the closest cliff when fixed in a glare. Needless to say, that, according to the stories, had also happened before!

But good looks weren’t his only strength. There was no one as precise and powerful in killing a Dragon, as Lee Taeyong. Not to mention fearless. Which was why he was the chief. When he was a baby, he had ripped a Dragon’s head clean off when it tried to crawl into his crib… according to the stories. It was like his destiny had been clear for him the moment he took his first breath.

Honestly, Mark wasn’t sure who exactly had come up with all these stories, as they seemed so fantastic and incredible no one could really be all that.

But then he took a look at Lee Taeyong, marching through the burning village, as people ran in chaos, swinging axes and swords at Dragons breathing their fiery breaths over their heads, like it was a sunny Sunday afternoon and smashing in a Gronckle’s head as he went and… well yeah, Mark also believed these stories.

“Mark, what are you doing out here?” Someone yelled at him, as Mark rushed by.

“Are you insane, Mark? You’ll get yourself killed!” another one hollered. Mark ducked under a heavy catapult and rushed past them.

He had long gotten used to the people telling him to stay inside and not get fried into a toasty Dragon-snack, but Mark had places to be, things to do. And really, he wasn’t even that tiny and skinny anymore as he had been a few years ago, when all the other kids his age seemed to be twice his size and people had decided that Mark was better kept inside during Dragon attacks.

Someone ripped him back by the collar of his shirt and a second later, the path he had just planned to rush down burst into flames. Holy Dragon bite, that had been close!

“Mark! What are you doing out here?” The nasal voice of the village chief snarled into his ear and Mark sent him his most blinding smile.

“Just on my way to the blacksmith shop.”

“Well, look your way then.” The older ordered and Mark nodded, before dashing off, towards said blacksmith hut.

 

Johnny was slamming his hammer onto a glowing piece of metal, when Mark came thundering inside.

“Mark, how nice to see you. I thought today was the day you became a light meal for a Deadly Nadder.”

“Har har.” Mark grumbled and quickly grabbed his leather apron “I’m not that small? Why does everybody keep taking me for… I don’t know.” He continued complaining, as he opened the window where people had dumped their dull or broken weapons, quickly picking up as many as he could carry to bring inside.

“Possibly because your fighting skills are worse than some of the 12-year-olds' in the village. Don’t worry, Mark, there’s other things than killing Dragons that make you a good person.” The man grinned, before he disappeared in the steam of the water he had just dunked the sword into to cool it off.

Mark sighed. Johnny was a good friend of the chief, the same age, too, though he looked older, the harsh life by the fire having given him deeper lines on his face. Apparently, that was still very hot if Mark’s annoying cousin Wendy was to be believed. Mark had been Johnny’s apprentice ever since he was little and the idea of him being “hot” was just… gross.

But Johnny was… well, for one he was hot, apparently, and he was ridiculously tall and beefy, able to swing hammers by only one finger. He didn’t get it. Johnny generally was a great person, very patient and funny. But if he said there were things other than killing Dragons – that just wasn’t true.

Here, in Berk, killing a Dragon was everything. It could even make a skinny kid that kept being bullied by everyone, like Mark, appear cool if he was the first one to take out one of the scaled beasts.

None of his peers had killed one yet. But at 17, they would be soon given the training, and then they’d all waltz around with their marks of honour and Mark – well Mark would probably be sharpening swords, as he was right now. Everyone was going to think he was so lame. Wait, no, they already did that. But, like, lamer. The lamest of them all.

Mark had to avoid that, because if he was stuck as the non-killer and sword sharpener, his crush was never going to spare him a second glance and his father would forever have that… disappointed, tired look of worry.

“Fire!” someone yelled, and Mark looked out the smith workshop’s window just in time to see one of the fire-fighting groups run past. It was the boys his age, those that were trusted with the most responsibility. Though no one really expected their house to make it, it was an honour to be allowed near flames that big. No wonder they never hung out with Mark. This was so much cooler than helping Johnny.

Mark looked after them. Renjun was running ahead, as he always did, the first one to throw a bucket of water on the flames. Mark left out a small sigh. Renjun was just… perfect. He was witty, strong, didn’t put up with anyone’s shit. And also barely ever acknowledged Mark existed. It didn’t matter, Mark would change that once he killed a Dragon. Renjun was sure to notice him then and immediately fall head over heels in love!

He was followed by Jaemin, who immediately tried to get his attention for doing such a great job, Jeno, who then gently pulled Jaemin away from Renjun (Mark internally thanked him, ugly jealousy rearing its head) who seemed more than annoyed with the other boy. And finally, there were Chenle and Jisung, pushing and shoving each other, losing half the water in their buckets before they could dump it on the fire.

The house was still burning, but at least they had looked cool. Mark sighed.

“The sword isn’t going to sharpen itself!” Johnny called from the ambos. Right. Back to being lame it was.

 

The fire fighting group ran by a few more times, and Mark always stopped and stared.

He might not have the muscle Jeno had, or the technique Jaemin had, or the skills Renjun had. But Mark had ideas. And in his free time, he had built a machine that would do all that he was lacking for him – a machine to kill a Dragon with.

Too bad he was stuck inside with Johnny watching him, while the better part of the village got ruined by Dragons, and so far, Mark hadn’t gotten the chance to try his brilliant invention and prove himself.

He had worked through all the swords and was busy replacing the handle of a hammer, as the screaming and the noises of fighting outside got louder and louder, more and more houses going up in flames as the Dragons kept restlessly attacking.

Suddenly, the name that everyone, even the toughest warriors of the village and the chief of the village, were scared of ripped over the battle.

“NIGHT FURY!”

A Dragon no one had ever seen, fast, vicious, and unpredictable, its fire breath stronger and more dangerous than that of any other Dragon. It never missed, striking with deadly precision that was more destructive than a whole swarm of any other kind of Dragon could dream to be.

The ultimate destroyer, the ultimate horror.

“Johnny, we need you out there!” someone leaned into the window, ash and blood streaked over her face.

Johnny looked at Mark.

“Will you be able to hold things up here? Not get killed?”

“Well, yes, I’m 17, not a baby.” Mark mumbled, slightly offended.

“Good.” Johnny grabbed his fight axe, a huge thing Mark could hardly lift “See you later!”

No one had ever killed a Night Fury. No one had even seen a Nigh Fury.

So, Mark was going to be the first.

It might be a bit ambitious, but in his situation, Mark definitely needed the reputational boost this was going to give him.

He waited for a minute after Johnny was gone, then he picked up his machine and rolled it outside. He’d need a good place to aim, one that allowed him to look over the sky without mountains and towers blocking him. He knew just where. So, he ran by people telling him to get back inside, Dragons munching on their stock of fish and scaring away the sheep, and houses burning to the ground.

He saw the older men and women take down Deadly Nadders, Hideous Zipplebacks, Terribly Terrors, and Gronckles, a Monstrous Nightmare was crawling over the city hall, but Mark didn’t have time to pay them any mind. He was only focussed on getting that Night Fury down.

He had to!

To get noticed by Renjun, to get respected, and to make his father proud!

He set up the net, getting it ready to shoot into the sky at such high speed you wouldn’t be able to see it with the bare eye anymore. Now all that was left to do, was take aim and fire.

It wouldn’t kill the Dragon, probably not, so Mark would have to go and finish the job himself. Like a warrior, a tough and rough warrior! And then he’d come home and all his problems would be fixed!

Fool proof plan, right?

The stars were twinkling over his head. Mark tuned out the screeching of the Dragons and the shouting of the village people. He ignored the stench of smoke and blood. All he focussed on, was the black sky.

And then, he heard it: the tell-tale sound of the shot of a Night Fury, that’d tell you it was coming and you were too slow to run.

The blue fireball exploded in front of him, bursting into orange and yellow flames, and for a moment Mark saw the outline of a Dragon he was unfamiliar with. He didn’t think, he just pulled the trigger. The force of the repercussion was so strong it sent him tumbling to the ground.

But the screech of a reptile was unmistakable and Mark squinted into the darkness, barely making out something big falling down.

“I hit it.” Mark whispered to himself. He hesitated a second, trying to order his thoughts, but there was no doubt: he had just taken out a Night Fury.

“Yes! I hit it! Did anybody see that?” he called, but the closest people fighting were far away from where he had positioned himself, and busy not getting killed. The excitement left him just as quickly as it came. Without anyone to vouch for what had just happened…

Nobody was going to believe him.

A snarl behind him ripped him from his depressing realisation and Mark tumbled around, coming face to face with a Monstrous Nightmare.

One of the most dangerous Dragons, after Night Furies, that came to hunt them down on a regular basis. Big, with long flat heads, a double set of horns grew from, and seemingly endless resources to breathe fire. But not only that, they also were able to set their whole bodies aflame, sharp talons on their wings and paws additional weapons they used to kill any- and everything in their path. Did Mark mention a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth?

His only weapon had been his catapult, and that had already been fired, so Mark was unarmed right now. The Dragon licked over its snout with a forked tongue. He definitely should have brought his dagger. Wow, this was so lame!

So, Mark did the only thing he could think of right now: he turned and ran.

He managed to get back into the village, where several people’s attention was perked by the running (and screaming) boy followed by a huge Dragon. Still, it needed a special type of warrior to dare and step into the way of one of these beasts and so, Mark kept running, as people probably thought he had had that one coming.

He felt heat lick up behind him and jumped, escaping the fire the Dragon tried to use to turn him in to Barbecue, but he knew the reptile was closing in on him, hearing it louder and louder right behind him.

Mark dove behind a pole, that promptly caught fire. He tried to duck under the metal base that wouldn’t burn and hoped for the best. The uncomfortable feeling of being watched crept up on him and he carefully looked to his right, but there was nothing but flames against the darkness to be seen.

Then, he felt a wet, forked tongue against his cheek and before he could even think of some escape, or maybe scream for help, someone darted past him, the disgusting sound of metal meeting Dragon skull made Mark shiver as he turned to see Lee Taeyong repeatedly bring down a hammer on the Monstrous Nightmare, which went limp under him, a puddle of purple Dragon blood forming on the scorched grass.

The fire had licked through the beam Mark was standing next to and the wood started cracking under the weight of the top pressing down on it. It started to lean, before the base gave in with a loud crack and it slammed into an un-burnt hut, that crumbled partially.

Mark watched in horror, before slowly, very slowly, turning to the chief of the village, who had also been watching disaster unfold in front of him, but now turned to fix Mark in a hard glare. The type that made people want to throw themselves off cliffs.

Mark’s brain unhelpfully supplied what a splendid way out of this utter humiliation that’d be. He’d possibly even become part of one story around the mystery that was Lee Taeyong. Well, maybe the story of Mark, the utter loser, would also become a popular one in the near future.

“Sorry, dad.” Mark muttered, averting his eyes from Taeyong’s.

“How come, every time you step outside the house, disaster follows? This is why I want you to stay at Johnny’s.”

And here Mark was and thought it was because his father needed an excuse to stare at Johnny’s ass and dropping Mark off every day was like presenting it on a silver platter.

It didn’t seem like an appropriate time to mention that, though.

It also didn’t feel that great of an idea to tell him about the Night Fury he had taken down, because Mark honestly wouldn’t even bet his old stuffed plush-sprout that he had actually, really hit the Dragon.

Knowing his luck, he had missed, or the Dragon had freed itself from the confinements of the net and was long gone. No, it seemed better to just not mention why exactly he had ignored orders and ran around outside and almost became Dragon-Dinner.

“Get back inside, we have a lot to clean up.” Taeyong groaned and Mark tried to make himself appear smaller, as he waddled past the grinning five boys, who had been watching together with half the village, empty buckets in their hands.

“Quite the performance, don’t you think? Running through half the village and getting more things put aflame than a swarm of Nadders could?” Jaemin teased with a cocky grin.

“Yeah, I know.” Mark stared at the ground.

“It’s actually impressive how badly you messed up.” Chenle smirked, before getting elbowed by Jisung.

“I just said that, don’t steal my lines.”

“Well, now I said it.”

“But I thought of it.”

“Yeah, and I made it cool.”

“You made it suck!”

Mark just ignored them and started ascending the path to the chief’s hut. They lived on top of a small hill, from where you could oversee the whole village. Right now, you could oversee the extent of the damage the Dragons (and Mark) had brought upon the houses.

The door squeaked in the hinges and Mark slammed it shut with more force than necessary, hoping to shut out the world. The sun was rising over the mountains surrounding them, but he’d just go to bed to try and sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise the Dreamies aren’t huge assholes in this, there’s misunderstandings we’ll get to soon~
> 
>  
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not my normal updating speed haha, but the first chapter and this one are both quite short, so I want you to get a better insight how the story will unfold.

Mark squinted at his map. Calculating from the position he had shot from yesterday and drawn in carefully, there were only so many places the Dragon could have landed. If he had hit it.

The woods on the other side of the bay, where he assumed the Night Fury to be, weren’t as familiar as those surrounding Berk, where he had spent all his childhood chasing Sooyoung and Yerim before they had decided boys were dumb and Mark suddenly found himself friend-less. But he still knew his way around. Not to mention, anyone living in Berk knew how to mark a path to avoid getting lost.

He wasn’t a complete failure at life!

Well, okay, apparently he had lost a Dragon, but that was just a minor set-back in the countless worries Mark lived with on a daily basis.

There were birds singing in the crowns of the trees he was pushing through, the underwood thick and old. Still, it seemed like the Dragon had just… poof, disappeared. Mark crossed another area off his map. He looked up, seeing the sun already well past her peak. He’d have to head home soon. Johnny was expecting him in the workshop in the evening. Not that there was much else to head home for… but he’d at least have to try this last place.

As he got closer, hope sparked in his chest. There was a wide path of trees knocked down, the wood still light and fresh inside. There hadn’t been a storm, so there was no reason for so many trees to get torn down and Mark picked up the pace, getting closer quickly.

A clear path downhill stretched on from the broken trees, the earth dug up and Mark ran towards the ledge over with the mess went.

There it was.

A pitch-black Dragon, caught in the net he had fired yesterday.

Mark immediately threw himself back down, out of sight. His breathing was coming short in a mixture of emotions: fear, happiness, surprise.

He had never seen a any Dragon like this. All he knew were colourful ones. Not like this one. Was it really… had he really?

Mark patted himself down for his knife and quickly pulled it up.

He’d have to get close and hope the rope held. Then, he’d have to cut out the heart, rip a tooth from its mouth and cut a piece of the scales – tooth and skin would be the mark of honour he’d wear, and the heart was to prove the Dragon was dead.

His heart was thundering in his chest, fingers trembling around the handle of the sharp blade. He took a deep breath in an effort to calm down. And then, he jumped over the edge and rolled down the muddy path, coming to a halt right in front of the tied-up Dragon.

Mark took in the magnificent form that lay in front of him. The Night Fury was big, though smaller than a Monstrous Nightmare, about three times as long as he was tall. The scales that covered its whole body were hardly reflecting any light, sleek and elegant, as pitch black as a moon-less night. Big wings were on its shoulders, a tail with a dorsal fin behind it, and its four feet had small talons.

It was beautiful.

The only thing that ruined the impressive image were the ropes cutting into its flesh, leaving bloody wounds all over.

Triumph blossomed in Mark’s chest.

“I did it! I did it! I brought down this mighty beast!” he called to no one, stepping closer. In a pose of victory, he placed his boot on the reptile, not expecting any reaction from the unmoving animal.

But as he nudged it, it growled and pushed Mark off, who screamed in terror and stumbled backwards until his back hit the rocks on the cliff’s edge.

“Holy Dragon wing!” Mark gasped for air, eyes never leaving the animal in front of him. And as he stared, it opened its eyes. Big, green orbs with slit pupils looked straight at Mark. The bright colour was such a big contrast to the sleek body. They were deep, smart… it was like the Dragon was staring right into Mark’s soul.

He thrust his knife in front himself and the Dragon huffed. It almost sounded like… a laugh?

Great, now even Dragons were making fun of Mark. Truly, he was living the life…

“I will kill you! I will take your heart and bring it to my father, so he’ll be proud of me. So the village will respect me.” Mark’s voice was shaking and not very threatening, but he crept towards the Dragon, knife still in front of him, both hands on the handle so it wasn’t trembling too much.

The green eyes never left him, watching every move. A sound nun unlike a purr came from the black beast and Mark almost dropped his knife.

“I will do it!” Mark was nearly yelling now, as he raised his hands over his head to gain enough force to thrust it into the Dragon’s chest. He was going to kill it! He was going to.

Going to…

Going…

The Dragon whined and bared its throat, closing its eyes, like it accepted its fate, but was regretful to leave his life so soon.

A pang of pity ripped through Mark. Not pity… guilt. How could he kill such a beautiful creature? No matter how dangerous it was. He knew it would be wrong.

Mark closed his eyes.

One smooth strike was all it would take. He needed enough speed to penetrate the scaled skin and flesh. But his blade was excellent, the result from his own hard work and careful maintenance.

He peeked through his lashes again. The Dragon was still, the whine soft and full of sadness.

Mark swallowed and felt his determination crumble.

Was he really not doing this?

All the reputation, all the glory he could get from this…

Mark felt his arms slowly sink down, until they were hanging down uselessly.

No. He couldn’t. It didn’t matter how much prestige it might bring him. He couldn’t kill this Night Fury, couldn’t end the live of a creature so majestic and powerful, not matter how evil and vicious it might be.

He stared at it for a few more beats, his own pulse slowly calming down.

The problem was, if he left it here, it’d be doomed for death, trapped in its net. So, Mark picked his knife back up and started cutting through the ropes.

One by one, he peeled them off where they had cut into the Dragon’s flesh. The reptile held still, eyes still closed, but there was no way he didn’t notice what was happening. And Mark was right. It seemed to have waited. The second the last rope was cut, the Dragon hurled itself off the ground, and Mark was slammed backwards.

He didn’t even see it move, before it was already on top of him, a paw holding him down by his chest. The black Dragon towered over him, his green eyes staring into Mark’s.

Mark knew this was it. He was literally staring into the eyes of death now, but death sure had beautiful eyes, the green taking several shades from light on the outside to dark on the inside. The Dragon seemed to contemplate what to do with Mark for a few moments and Mark found himself unable to look away.

Then, it pulled away and opened its mouth, one row of perfect, pointed teeth showing. Mark closed his eyes, expecting the blast of blue fire to hit him and make Mark, Medium Rare with a side of frizzy hair of him.

But it never came.

Instead, a deafening screech, accompanied with Dragon breath and spit rained down on him. Mark’s heart was racing in his ears again.

And then, the weight lifted off his chest and Mark heard heavy stomps move away.

He scrambled to a sitting position and stared after the black Dragon that hopped over the forest floor, each step sounding like a mild earthquake from its weight, before it pushed itself off to flight.

And promptly flew into the next bolder.

Mark winced in sympathy as the Dragon bounced off the rock and continued on in a wobbly line, taking down a few more trees. Then, it flapped its wings once more and disappeared from his sight.

“Wow.” Mark breathed and stood, planning to head home. But the second he stood, everything turned black and he flopped back onto the ground.

 

Mark returned just in time for his duty at the blacksmith shop and Johnny took one look at him and sighed.

“There’s lots to fix from yesterday’s attack.” He said, gesturing to the broken weapons and the equally as damaged armours and helmets. “We also have to fix the beam. You know, the one?”

Yes, the one that Mark had tried to hide behind yesterday and that had smashed down to cause more destruction. “Yeah.”

“We need to take away the metal coating, so they can plant a new one. And then re-plate it.” Johnny explained.

Mark nodded. The embarrassment was still strong, as was the fear from almost getting fried to death just hours earlier. But those green eyes and black scales wouldn’t leave his mind.

“Hey buddy, don’t take it too hard, okay? Everyone will have forgotten in a few days!” Johnny encouraged “It happens. Only the strongest can take on a Monstrous Nightmare.”

“Yeah. But Dad can. And you can. Probably all the other kids my age can.”

“And that’s where you’re wrong. There’s a good reason those five are still the water patrol and that’s because none of them are warriors yet. Come time, you will get the same training they do and you’ll be able to prove yourself to the elders.”

Mark nodded. He had very strong doubts the elders would have anything to praise him for.

Killing Dragons? Mark didn’t want to do that anymore. Not after the experience of the last day.

Too bad killing Dragons was the same as breathing air around here.

 

He returned home late. His father was by the fireplace, mindlessly poking the coals with a long iron staff. His face was wrinkled in worry and Mark tried to slip past him.

The sneaking was short-lived, as Mark only reached the stairs before his father spoke.

“Mark? I need to talk to you.”

“Ah. Dad. I also have to talk to you.” Mark swallowed. Better bring it up now, the final nail on his coffin to utter shame on the family. Yay!

“I think, it’s time you learnt how to fight. Kill Dragons! You and the others are old enough now, the war against these beasts is getting worse every year. We need the fighting power of all our men and women.” Taeyong clenched a fist around the pole in his hand, face dark.

It was true. Mark didn’t remember how it was during his childhood, but he did know that when he was 12 and started working with Johnny, there’d only be attacks every month or so, and only a few dozen of them would try and ruin the village. These days, the attacks often came weekly, with more of the vicious reptiles than ever invading the village.

“Oh man, this is awkward. Because I was thinking, I know I kept saying I wanted to kill a Dragon, but really, I’ve thought about it. I think there’s way too many people doing that already, what about – uh…”

“Yes, I know, I kept saying to was too dangerous whenever you asked me. But you’ve grown up, Mark. You’ll soon be a man, and a man around here should carry his batch of honour. You’ll need this.” An axe was pushed into Mark’s arms and he grunted under the weight.

“No, uh, Dad, I can’t kill Dragons.”

“Of course you can’t.” his dad nodded. Great, that had been easier than expected “But that’s what training is for. You and the others will learn how to properly go about it. Don’t worry, you’ll be the great warrior you always wanted to be in no time.” His father smiled.

Mark gulped. His father hardly ever smiled at him. In fact, his father generally hardly ever smiled, the harsh life in Berk seemingly having washed his bright moods into the ocean with one of the thunderstorms.

“Aren’t you excited?” worry bloomed on his face once more.

“No, I… I am. Super excited.” Mark whispered and clutched onto the axe like it might save him.

“Good.” His father nodded and turned, picking up a big bag that he hefted over his shoulder. Mark watched warily. He knew what this meant. He’d leave, another trip to finally find the nest of the Dragons and squash out the source from where they kept coming so their village could be peaceful and safe.

Another trip from which only some of the boats that had left would return. Another trip after which members of their village would be gone from their lines forever.

“Train hard. I’ll be back.” He patted Mark’s shoulder “Probably.”

Mark nodded.

“I will.”

“That’s all I ask of you.” His father smiled and turned to the door, leaving without looking back to him.

 

That night, Mark dreamt of bright green eyes with slit pupils, and of a black Dragon laughing at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_15)


	3. Chapter 3

“Look who made it.” Mark was squatting next to the iron gate of the gymnasium and looked up when he heard voices. “Mark too-good-for-the-fire-fighting-squad Lee.” Jisung smirked down on him.

“I would literally do anything to get on there, but people insist I get killed immediately, if you haven’t noticed.” Mark sighed.

“Hm, you sure about that? Cause that’s not what I heard.” Chenle leaned onto his worse half lazily.

Mark looked at them in confusion. They never really talked to him, unless there was a chance to make fun of him. Now that he was thinking about it, that meant they did talk to him quite a lot. But never as in having a conversation.

“What did you hear?” Mark asked, but he was interrupted by someone banging a sword against the gate closing the gymnasium off from the general public.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Dragon training!”

“Yuta, will you stop that, it dulls the sword and it bad for the material.”

“Shut up, it looks cool, are you already trying to ruin this class for everybody, Doyoung?”

“We are trying to be reasonable adults here, who’re holding a serious class.”

Someone from the kids chuckled.

“See? No one’s taking you seriously.” The man with the sword knocked it against the gate once more to quiet everyone down. The other one wasn’t wrong. Mark’s heart broke a little with every bang that resonated from the iron. He already envisioned himself in the workshop, trying to hammer the dents out.

“My name’s Yuta and this spoil-sport here is Doyoung.” The village was small. Everyone knew everyone by name, which was also important to avoid accidentally marrying your own family. But okay, nice introduction or whatever. Mark looked around. Yerim was yawning widely.

Yuta and Doyoung were younger than his dad, however they were a decade older than them, making them experienced warriors. They had been entrusted with the lead of the guard, as well as the training while most of the village’s warriors were gone.

Mark didn’t know them too well, which wasn’t really surprising considering Mark didn’t really know anyone other than his dad, Johnny, Yerim, Sooyung, and his cousin and aunt that well. As a child he had been shy. Now he was stuck in the workshop – not to mention no one would want to ruin their reputation by hanging out with him.

Mark certainly wouldn’t want to ruin his reputation by hanging out with himself. His eyes caught on Renjun. He was leaning onto an axe that reached his waist. It looked heavy and old, probably an heirloom, like his own. Only much cooler. Of course it was. Renjun was the one owning it!

“Let’s get started, shall we?” Yuta grinned widely and pushed down the lever, which opened the gate.

Mark felt very un-excited about the whole thing. If he hadn’t been able to kill that Dragon that had been helpless in front of him, he was pretty sure he was doomed with the moving type. He knew they were kept here, in caves in the walls, for training purposes or for fun. Once a year, the best trainee of the season got to take down a Monstrous Nightmare in front of the whole village to earn their mark of honour.

The floor and walls were carved into the mountain, some dark trails spoke of past fights and fire that had licked over the raw material. The cages in the walls were closed with heavy bolds and the ceiling was guarded off with thick iron poles and a chain net over the top – so no one could escape.

Mark remembered watching from above year after year, imagining how amazing it would be to be down there one day. Now, it didn’t feel so great anymore. His original plan to kill a Dragon with the help of a machine had failed and he had lost all confidence in ever being able to hold a candle to what the other seven could do.

“I hope I get some serious burns.” Jaemin cackled, as he marched into the arena.

“Some mauling would be nice.” Sooyoung agreed. Mark frowned to himself.

“Yeah, it’s only fun if you get a scar out o it.” Renjun easily agreed, like it was no big deal. Mark hated pain and he already had a scar over his chin and that looked weird so… no thanks?

“Let’s get started!” Yuta’s voice echoed from the naked walls “Like every year, the trainee who does best will get the honour of killing their first Dragon right here where we stand, with the whole village watching, like Yukhei last year. So I expect you all to try your best.”

His eyes landed on Mark “Even you, Mark!”

Wow, he really felt the encouragement.

“But until then, don’t worry, you’re kinda small and with that posture you don’t look like a threat, so you’ll be less of a target.” He chirped on. Some of the others snickered. Mark sunk into himself further.

They lined up in front of the cages and Doyoung started pacing in front of them. His leather shirt was sleeveless, revealing the many healed wounds he had suffered over his career so far.

“Behind these doors are just a few of the many species of Dragons there are. The ones that come hunt us down the most and thus those you’ll have to face on a regular basis in the future. Of course, we’ll learn more about all the types of these monsters we know of in fun study sessions, where we’ll study the book of Dragons.”

“A book?” Chenle whispered.

“Ew, I’ll have to read?” that was Jisung.

“I’d sooner clean the stables.” Yerim announced.

“Doyoung, it’s not fun at all, please stop boring us.” Yuta hollered and Mark wondered who had thought it’d be a great idea to leave these two in charge.

Oh right.

Lee Taeyong.

“So, today, we’re going to start with the Gronckle!” Doyoung went on, unimpressed by his co-worker. He stepped up to one of the doors, putting his hand on the ladle. Mark’s eyes widened.

“Wait! Aren’t you going to teach us first?” Jeno asked, sounding slightly panicked.

“Uh. No. It’s called learning on the job.” And Doyoung pushed down the mechanism that opened the door to the Dragon’s cage.

And here Mark had been, thinking this one was the more reasonable of the two.

The gate rattled open and from the darkness of the cave shot a bulky and round Dragon. Its tiny wings fluttered on its back to hold it in the air, the brown body covered in thick scales and spikes. The lower jaw was bigger than the upper, revealing the whole set of yellow, sharp teeth inside.

Mark and the others burst apart, running different directions, as the Dragon snarled and mindlessly flew through the arena, before slamming into the wall, taking itself down from a moment. But it didn’t take long to recover. It scrambled to its skinny legs and took flight again.

“Come on guys! What’s the first thing you’re going to need?” Yuta hollered.

“A doctor?” Mark screamed, getting as far away from the Dragon as possible, while some of the others were already taking fighting stance, various weapons raised to slam down.

“Better teachers?” Jeno called, surprisingly close to Mark, not where his friends were trying to get the Gronckle that easily dodged all their mindless attacks.

“A shield!” It was Renjun’s angelic voice cutting through the noise. He also wasn’t trying to hit the Dragon no matter what, but had already made his way over to the armoury and picked up one of the wooden shields waiting there.

“A shield is correct. Everyone, go get a shield!” Doyoung hollered. Mark gasped. The shields were far away from where he was, and inconveniently close to the Gronckle…

“The most important part of equipment is your shield.” Doyoung kept talking on. Really, couldn’t this lesson have taken place BEFORE unleashing a furious Dragon on them that kept trying to knock them down?

Mark watched in horror how the thick tail of the reptile slammed into Jaemin, who fell backwards and slipped over the stone ground with a grunt, before coming to a halt and slowly getting back up.

“If you have to make the choice between a shield, a sword, or an axe – take the shield.” Doyoung explained. Mark had made his way over to the remaining ones and grabbed one, trying to slip it into his skinny arm.

It seemed to be stuck, stupid thing, why wouldn’t this…

“This was mine!”

“No, I had it first!”

“Did not!”

“Did two!”

“Take that one over there, it’s tiny, like you!”

Chenle ripped the shield from Jisung’s hands at the taunt and slammed it over his head. Mark watched in horror, but Jisung’s skull seemed to be made from steel and he simply shook himself, before grabbing the shield again.

“But I want this one!”

“It’s mine!”

Suddenly, a ball of fire came towards the two bickering friends and Mark was about to scream, but too late. The Dragon’s attack landed clean on the shield and it was slammed from their hands.

“Jisung, Chenle, you’re out, stand here on the side with us.” Doyoung called. The two stared at each other for a second. Both had black ash covering their fronts and faces.

Mark would have stayed to watch how they got into each other’s hair again within a second, before Doyoung broke them apart and dragged both their asses to the side lines, but he was busy trying not to suffer a similar, or worse, fate.

“Shields are good for something else. If you have a weapon, you can knock it on them to create noise. That will distract the Dragon.” It was Yuta shouting now.

The others started banging the handles of axes, swords and hammers to the wood or the metal lining of the shields and Mark tried to do the same, but only a sad little knock was created. Why did this axe have to be so goddamn heavy? Why did his arms have to be weaker than cooked pasta?

The Gronckle seemed affected by the distraction and started flying in wobbly lines. But then, it opened its mouth and blew another shot of fire towards Yerim and Renjun. Yerim jumped out of the line with ease, while Renjun dropped to the floor and rolled himself into safety. God, he was so effortlessly cool… Mark could never.

“Ah, fire, yes, every Dragon has a limited amount of shots it can fire before having to recharge its flame. How many shots does a Gronckle have?” Doyoung asked.

“Five!” Sooyoung hollered back to the teacher.

“No, it’s six!” Jeno corrected her.

“Six is correct.”

Wonderful, so only four more tries for the Dragon to make himself a yummy dinner to go.

“Wow, you’re so smart!” Jaemin chirped, throwing Jeno a kiss. Mark wrinkled his nose and Karma didn’t let Jaemin get away with shameless flirting during training, the next blast of fire directed at him. He managed to partly hide behind his shield, that took the worst of the attack, but his leather pants looked a bit black and he hurriedly slapped out stray flames that scorched the hair on his arms.

“Jaemin, out!”

Mark watched from behind the wooden wall the shields had been mounted on, how the Gronckle found its next target in Sooyoung. She tried to escape the blast of fire, but it caught on her shirt. Thankfully, no one was wearing another other than leather. In the whole village there only were woollen clothes for extremely cold days, but even then you were served better with fur. Leather and fur were much sturdier to fire and that was what you needed when you lived in Berk.

“Sooyoung, out!”

If Mark had counted correctly, there were two blasts left.

Renjun was rushing across the arena, still making noise on his shield.

“Mark, move your ass, this is training to kill Dragons, not to play hide and seek!” Yuta hollered and Mark carefully moved from safety, eyes always on the Dragon. Yerim charged towards the Dragon with a war cry, but it easily dodged her attack and hit her with its heavy tail.

Mark winced to himself as his childhood friend went down, limp.

“Yerim, out!” Doyoung came onto the field and dragged the unconscious girl to the side.

Mark looked around. Only him, Jeno, and Renjun were left.

Renjun looked like a vision. His hair was pushed back, face and body slightly sweaty and shiny. His expression was set in deep concentration, making him look much more mature than he normally looked. Anyone who thought to make fun of him for his petite build should come and see now. He was definitely holding up the best, Mark had no doubt he’d be the one chosen for the traditional killing of the Dragon by the end…

“Mark!”

Mark’s eyes snapped from where he had been ogling Renjun and he saw the Gronckle fly towards him. Its mouth was set in a permanent, mean smile and Mark screeched and backed away in a hurry.

All thoughts of reasonable strategies to avoid getting fried into a McMark were blown from his mind, pure fear taking over, not unlike what he had felt yesterday when he had been pushed to the ground by the Night Fury.

Only, this Dragon was nowhere as majestic and beautiful as the black one. There was no intelligence in its eyes, that were a dull yellow colour and barely able to focus on Mark.

His back collided with the stone wall and the Gronckle was right in front of him, the stench of Dragon breath ghosting over Mark’s face.

“Mark Lee!” Someone hollered, but Mark couldn’t move, he was just frozen, his axe and shield dropped to the ground, as he watched the Dragon open its mouth, revealing rows of sharp, crooked teeth. Yep. This would be it. Killed not by a Night Fury, but by an ugly Gronckle. This was so lame!

A flame ignited in the back of the Dragon’s throat, heat radiated onto Mark’s face and the reptile took a deep breath, the glow from the fire getting stronger.

Mark closed his eyes and waited. He heard the roar for fiery breath explode from the Dragon’s mouth, but the heat came from above his head.

Had it missed?

He dared to open one eyes and saw Yuta with a gloved hand in the Dragon’s mouth, like there weren’t razer sharp teeth waiting to rip him to shreds and a burst of fire had just come out from it.

“That’s six.” The teacher chirped and ripped the massive Dragon away from Mark. His mouth was hanging open, as he watched the older man drag the heavy Dragon across the arena, unbothered by its struggling.

He threw it back into the cave it had come from and Doyoung pulled the lever, the gate slamming back down.

Mark swallowed. So maybe there was a reason these two were training them. Not just anyone would go and handle a Dragon like it was a toddler throwing a tantrum.

 

“Everyone who got disqualified, don’t worry, you’ll get another chance.” Doyoung announced, clapping his hands. They were in a lose circle. Yerim was back to the living – which was good – but there was some serious damage done to the trainees already. Mark’s hair was singed on top, too, but ruined hair was better than death, so there was that.

He really didn’t want another chance.

But would anybody listen… uh, no. Again, stubbornness issues.

“Actually, what Mark unwillingly demonstrated is a very important lesson you should take to heart for the rest of your lives: A Dragon will always, without fail, go for the kill.” Yuta’s face was dark, as he fixed each of them in a hard stare.

 

So, why hadn’t the Night Fury?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
>  
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	4. Chapter 4

Dragon killing training excused them from any other responsibility they had, so Mark found himself strolling through the woods in the afternoon.

After fixing his hair… somewhat. Well, he tried to save what could be saved. 

And who was he kidding, of course, he wasn’t strolling, he was marching towards where he had found the downed Night Fury!

He hadn’t brought back the net he had cut lose from yesterday, and he just needed to return and replay what had happened and why exactly he had been unable to go for the kill – and why the Dragon hadn’t gone for the kill in return.

The broken trees were unchanged from yesterday, helping Mark to easily find the leftovers of his net. He sighed and crouched down, running his fingers over the weighs knotted into it, over the ropes that he had had so carefully intertwined to make sure they’d hold the weight of a Dragon. There was the purple blood of a Dragon smeared over parts of them, broken black scales sticking to it. 

Mark frowned. He hadn’t been able to get a good look at the Dragon. Hopefully, the wounds weren’t as bad… 

Heaven, what was he even doing? Worrying over a Dragon – the kind that made his and the village’s lives hard, killing people, setting their houses aflame… well okay, they also killed Dragons, much more than the Dragons killed people, but still.

Mark ruffled his hair in frustration over his own stupidity, fingers getting stuck in the fried strands on top.

He looked up, deciding to go home and re-evaluate his life choices and find his will to kill Dragons again, but his breath got caught in his lungs, when instead of staring at a random tree, he made eye contact with a boy.

He was pretty, Mark’s brain unhelpfully supplied, but there was something off about him… Mark blinked and when his eyes opened again, he found himself not face to face with another teenager, but with the black Dragon he had saved. His eyes were just as deep and clever as he remembered, staring Mark down.

A yelp escaped his mouth and he started backtracking, but the Dragon didn’t move, it just sat there, cocking its head, like he was wondering what the hell the human was doing.

Mark stopped and took a few deep breaths. 

Was he finally losing it? 

First, he thought he saw a boy, when there wasn’t one, and now there was a Dragon curiously following his movements, instead of making Mark the starter for his dinner?

Wait, maybe it was what Yuta had said: he was too skinny, not enough of a threat and possibly not even enough to be a fulfilling meal.

Whatever it was, Mark was going to at least use the time he had left to observe the form of the black beast in front of him. There were scabs over his body, dark purple, and the guilt he had felt yesterday was back in full force. At least it looked like everything was healing well. 

The Dragon had its wings tugged against its back as it sat there like a dog or a cat might, only its tail wasn’t still. It gently swayed over the ground, brushing down the grass and flowers under it, but not harshly enough to break them.

But the most impressive wasn’t its wings, nor its talons, or the beautiful black scales. It was its eyes, that Mark’s own kept being draw back to. 

Suddenly, a forked tongue licked over its mouth and a gurgling sound echoed between the trees. 

Mark’s eyebrows rose, as the Dragon moved its head to stare at its tummy in betrayal. 

This… this wasn’t good… hungry Dragon. Hungry, big, dangerous Dragon. Right in front of yummy Mark. 

The Dragon looked back towards Mark expectantly. 

“Ahaha… ha… gotta go.” Mark turned and ran the direction he had come from. But immediately, he heard the heavy stomping of the Dragon following him and only a few metres into his flight, something pushed him from behind.

Mark lost his footing and smashed into the forest floor.

He waited for the sweet embrace of death, but, again, nothing happened. Instead, something started tapping his back, a whining noise coming from behind.

Mark slowly, very slowly, turned his head, to look over his shoulder. The Dragon was poking him with its nose, but stopped when he saw Mark had reacted to him.

The forked tongue ran over its mouth again.

“Uh…” Mark stared at the Dragon dumbly. It stared right back, face moving like… like this reptile was judging Mark. Hard. 

Could somebody please cut him some slack?

The Dragon sighed and rolled its eyes. Then, it pushed itself off the ground and flapped its wings, ascending into the sky. Mark’s jaw dropped open, as he watched the smooth and elegant flight of the Dragon, until it had disappeared behind the trees.

What had just happened?

 

The next day, they had study sessions. Why it had to be held in the city hall, where there was barely enough light to read when they were going to go through a book, instead of just doing it outside, in the sun… Mark wasn’t sure. However, he preferred this much over getting chased through the arena by Dragons.

Yuta was gnawing on beef jerky, looking bored out of his mind, while Doyoung stood straight on front of the table on which the trainees had been gathered.

“Right. After out successful first lesson yesterday…”

“What’s his definition of success?” Yerim muttered.

“Successful first lesson yesterday, we’ll be diving into theory today. The most important book of them all: the Book of Dragons. Everything we know, about every Dragon we know, is in these pages! Knowing it by heart is the duty of any warrior, as it can save you and other peoples’ lives to know the enemy you’re facing in and out.” Doyoung glared at Yerim.

“So, I expect you all to read this by tomorrow, so you’re prepared for the next practical lesson.”

“Wait. Read?” Sooyoung gasped loudly.

“The whole thing?” Jisung whined.

“Why do we have to read, when we can just kill the stuff we read about?” Jaemin slammed a fist onto the table. Mark startled. Yerim threw him a pitying glance. Mark wanted to disappear into thin air.

“Because I don’t see you killing anything with your current level, not even a Terrible Terror, Mr Na. Like I said, the knowledge this book holds can be vital for survival. We only have three of these, so you’ll have to share. Have a fun day.”

Wait. That was it? 

Apparently, yes, because Doyoung turned to Yuta, who hopped off his chair and slapped the other’s ass, before running out the door, cackling loudly.

“Fucking pest…” Doyoung turned to see all eight trainees stare at him “What are you looking at, go and read I said! I’ll be testing you tomorrow.”

“Well, guess this is a free day for me. I’ve read the thing, like, three times.” Jeno grinned and hopped of the bench.

“No! Jeno, your presence here is the only reason why I haven’t tried to kill myself in the ingle.” Jaemin lamented.

“Dragon spit, why are boys so lame?” Sooyoung whispered. 

“Just shut up and read, Jaemin.” Renjun grumbled and took the first one off the stack. His elegant fingers opened the first page and Mark would happily turn into the book to have Renjun’s hands on him and…

“I wasn’t finished.” Chenle screeched.

“It’s the title page, you don’t have to read that.” Jisung hissed back.

“Oh yes? Well, if Doyoung asks us about it tomorrow, you’ll look very old.”

“He’s not going to.”

“And how do you know that, huh?”

“I just do.”

“Do not.”

“Do, too.”

Mark sighed. His father had a copy of the Book of Dragons at home and Mark had torn through it so many times, he was sure he’d be able to answer any question directed at him without trouble – at least one thing he was good at. After all, he had done his research to perfect his killing machine which had worked oh so well.

He got off the bench and crept towards the door, slipping outside without anyone noticing his disappearance.

The Book of Dragons had hardly anything on Night Furies. Not even the silhouette of the Dragon. There was one sentence: The unholy offspring of lighting and death itself.

And there was one thing that stood on every single page, about every single Dragon:

Extremely dangerous, kill on sight.

 

Mark hadn’t killed on sight, but he also didn’t think that the black Dragon was the unholy offspring of lightning and death. It was… too cute.

 

He planned to spend the day well, however Mark didn’t even get half-way across the village, when someone hollered his name.

“Mark!” his little cousin sprinted across the market and slammed into Mark’s leg. They both were lucky that Dejun was only reaching Mark’s hip and even skinnier than himself, or they’d probably be rolling in the dirt.

“Mama said you had important Dragon training!” Dejun chirped, staring up at Mark. People always said he looked more like the village chief than Mark, and they weren’t wrong.

“Yeah. Yeah I do have… Dragon training.”

“That is so cool! I wanna train Dragons, too!”

“Uh, we don’t…”

“When do you get your own pet-Dragon?” Dejun asked excitedly. 

“I don’t get a pet Dragon. No one has pet Dragons.” Mark stared at the boy. Where was he getting all these ideas from? Leave it to his youngest cousin to think of the most absurd things.

“Yes, they do.” Dejun pouted “Uncle Jungwoo always tells me about them. And he as a pet Dragon. It’s so cool!” 

Mark smiled down on his cousin. “I’m sure his pet Dragon is great.”

Kim Jungwoo was a mysterious person. Barely a few years older than Mark, he had moved out of the village and right to the tree line long before becoming of age. His parents had been one of the victims of Dragon attacks, but he had never seemed sad over it. There were people arguing it was because his father used to hit him. But those were only rumours.

He didn’t interact with them much. He was there… but it was like he was an extra to the village.

And he never fought against Dragons. He had never attended Dragon training. But his house also never got damaged. He was good with healing, but their village healer wouldn’t let him join him. So, only people desperate enough to trust him would secretly see him.

Originally, Mark had thought this was the only person less cool then himself. But right now, he started to kind of envy the life Jungwoo led. It much be nice, once you got over that you’d forever be the village gossips go-to topic.

Heavens knew what pets the man had, but Mark had serious doubts about Dragons being among them. That he would show whatever they were to Dejun was not that surprising on the other hand. His baby-cousin was quite the adorable child.

“Mama said I had to find strawberries. Are you coming with me? It’s boring alone.”

Mark bid his free day goodbye and nodded.

“Great! We can play pretend. We’d have to gather Strawberries to free the princess kidnapped by a sea monster.”

“That sounds… lovely.”

“Right? I’d be the princess, and you’d have to gather.” Dejun pushed his basket into Mark’s hands, still smiling brightly and as innocent as only a 5-year-old like him got.

Mark happily agreed, when he noticed the sneaky plan hidden in a story. Great. Even his tiny cousin was now smarter than himself.

 

 

“Today, we’re going to face a Deadly Nadder.” Yuta banged his sword against the metal gate they stood in front of. Doyoung jerked at the sound and so did Mark. 

“Which category of Dragons does it belong to and what’s its ultimate weakness?” Doyoung’s eyes scanned the crowd. Some evaded the teacher’s eyes with unease and of course he picked one of those trying to disappear into thin air. “Jisung?”

“Uh… Nadder category?”

“Wrong. Come on, this isn’t even an exotic Dragon, we get these all the time. You’re going to be watching today’s training and then you can take another look into the Book of Dragons in the evening. We wouldn’t want you to fall behind on training, because you aren’t allowed to join, right?”

“What? No, come on.”

“No talking back. Renjun?”

“They go into the Tracker Class. They have two weaknesses: One is that they expose their soft and unshielded bellies when throwing the spikes off their spine, which leaves a good opening to stab them.” Mark felt unease creep over him. “Two: they, like many other Dragons, can be rendered immobile by pressing down on the base of their skull, where their spine is attached.”

“Good. But there’s a third weakness. Sooyoung?”

“They have a huge blind spot.”

“Exactly. Now, I hope you can make good use of that. To make it more fun, Yuta and I built up this maze you can use to hide. Today’s about attacking. Nadders are quick and agile, very versatile in their attacks. So, you have to be versatile in yours, too. I want everyone to touch the Nadder, be it with your weapon or bare fists. Now choose from these and get read, I’m counting down from 30. And Jisung? Don’t even try.”

Mark stared at the stack of wooden weapons. He looked up at Yuta, who was on he stands, to watch over them from above. He waved at Mark.

“30, 29, 28” 

Well, better follow the rest of the team and grab something and then hide well in that maze, Mark decided, and grabbed shield and sword before darting into the wooden labyrinth. 

Maybe, if he was lucky, someone would forget he was also to touch the Dragon. Yeah, wonderful plan. Now he only had to effectively hide.

Doyoung had arrived at 1, and the typical screaming of a Deadly Nadder immediately ripped over the arena. 

Mark looked upwards and saw the blue tail once.

There was some screaming, but Mark didn’t see what was happening.

“Good job Jaemin, you pass.” Yuta hollered. 

Mark slowly moved around, always keeping track that he was as far away from where the Nadder and sometimes one of the others was screaming. But the Dragon seemed to get more and more annoyed quickly. Sooyoung passed, followed by Jeno, Yerim was disqualified. 

The tell-tale noise of a fire blast cut through the air and Mark gripped his shield harder. Deadly Nadders had some of the most destructive fire out there. He really didn’t want to lose more hair... or anything else for that matter. Like his life.

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the stone walls, like one of the wooden walls had fallen over. Mark froze. Another crash, and then more in quick succession. 

He looked up just in time to see the wall to his right topple over, towards him. Mark hurried away, out of the way where it’d fall, to avoid getting smashed, but suddenly Renjun jumped over the falling prop, followed by the Nadder, that flew over them with a screech.

Renjun, on the other hand, didn’t have wings, so he fell like the regular human he was, right on top of Mark. His body was warm and small, Mark really couldn’t complain, but it only lasted a second.

The Nadder screamed and Renjun pushed himself up, one hand on Mark’s face.

“Ow!” Mark groaned, but Renjun seemed uncaring, eyes focussed on the Dragon. He ripped Mark’s sword from his hands and not a moment too early he swung it back, before bringing it down on the Nadder’s head that had reached the two trainees. 

The Dragon lost balance and Renjun jammed the back of the wooden sword into the back of its neck and it went limp, falling into the floor.

He only now seemed to realise, that one of his feet was still on Mark, pressing him into the floor by his chest. Mark also had stopped noticing. That had been so hot! Renjun could step on him any day of the weeks and he’d say thank you.

“Sorry.” Renjun muttered and stepped back. He held out a hand and Mark dumbly stared at it, before taking it and finding himself back on two feet a moment later.

“Good job, Renjun. Since we only have one Nadder, that concludes today’s Dragon training. I’m sure you’ll get another chance, Chenle and Mark.” 

 

They were released into the afternoon sun after a few more hours of “dry practice”, which had Mark’s whole body aching from trying to elegantly, yet forcefully stab the air with his wooden sword. He didn’t even want to think about how dumb he must have looked doing so. 

Still, he couldn’t help himself but return to where he had met the Dragon days before. It was like an invisible force pulling him. If he hadn’t been stuck helping his cousin yesterday, he would have gone earlier. Where the curiosity came from? Mark didn’t know. Probably because the Dragon was everything he wasn’t supposed to be and adorable on top?

He had thought about the Dragon’s behaviour the day before yesterday and concluded that maybe the Night Fury wanted to be fed? Now, Mark wasn’t sure about the menu of a Dragon – other than Mark-Barbecue, of course – but the Dragons that hunted them down usually stole their fish, so fish it was.

Just how Mark seemed to get drawn back to the woods, the Dragon seemed to as well, or maybe it had never left. Regardless, it was on a clearing close to where it had initially been shot down, curled up into a small ball, face covered with the fluke of his tail.

Mark watched in awe from safe distance. He had never seen a sleeping Dragon before. The gentle rise and fall of its chest seemed… well, peaceful. The opposite of anything Mark connected to Dragons.

He must have slacked the grip on the fish, because it flopped onto the ground with a wet splotch and the reptile on the other end of the clearing startled, sitting up in one smooth movement. His green eyes immediately found Mark. He still felt fear, at least a little. After all, this was a Dragon much bigger than himself, with deadly fiery breath and huge wings and talons, able to rip him to shreds if it so wanted.

But it hadn’t yet, instead, it had behaved more like a puppy. Not to mention its face was much more beautiful and sophisticated that those of the other Dragons Mark knew, no stray teeth sticking out anywhere, no ugly spikes on its body.

The Dragon’s eyes dropped to the fish and its forked tongue lapped over his mouth. It got up and started marching towards Mark.

Now, a Dragon sitting far away and a Dragon hurrying closer - those were two completely different sets of shoes! Mark gave the fish a sloppy kick towards the Dragon but missed. The force of the move that didn’t connect made him stumble and he landed on his ass, right next to the fish.

The Dragon gurgled, like it was laughing, and really, who could blame him? Mark would be laughing about himself, too.

But he was preoccupied from confirming that he was the lames person to ever grace the face of earth with nearing a heart attack because of the inclosing reptile. The Dragon sat down right in front of him and lowered its head to sniff the fish. A purr came from its chest and it licked over the scaled skin of the food once, before picking it off the ground and throwing it up, so it landed in his mouth. He chewed twice and swallowed. 

Well, that was one huge ass fish gone.

The Dragon sighed happily and licked its lips, before its eyes fell back on Mark. It eyed him over, taking in all of Mark’s spaghetti body, before coming closer. Mark scooted backwards slowly, but the Night Fury took tiny steps to keep the distance closed. It sniffed around, like it was looking for more, nudging Mark with its nose a bit.

“I… I don’t have more.” Mark pressed between small giggles. He was ticklish, okay? He couldn’t help it!

The Dragon froze, like it had understood what he had said and eyed Mark in worry. Then, it started to… retch?

Mark wondered if two chews were too little to finish a fish after all, but he didn’t even get to finish the thought, when a big chunk of the meat landed right in his lap. Dragon slobber all over, of course.

Ew.

Did it not like it?

Mark stared at the green eyes in front of him and carefully waited for more. But the Dragon retracted and sat down, staring back at Mark just as intently. 

Then, his eyes dropped onto the fish for a beat, before being back on Mark. It nodded its head, like he was trying to get Mark to do something… like eating the half-eaten, wet fish…

Mark stared at his lap in horror, then back up at the Dragon. The reptile nodded again.

Oh joy.

Mark carefully picked up the meat from his legs and closed his eyes in the hopes of making this less disgusting. Then again, it was kind of thoughtful that the Dragon wanted to make sure he was fed and happy, too, right?

With that thought in mind, Mark bit down and quickly chewed the rare fish, swallowing as quickly as possible. It was gross. It didn’t make sense. Why… why on earth would the Dragon care if he went hungry or not? Dragons were vicious creatures, brutal and without sense of morality. It was all Mark had ever been taught, all he had ever witnessed for himself. 

But this Dragon here. It was nothing like that!

He looked up for approval from the reptile and sure enough, it looked quite pleased with itself. 

“Wow, that was so yummy. But I’m not that hungry, how about you eat the rest?” Mark suggested and wiggled the fish. Immediately, the Dragon’s eyes eyed were focussed on the foot. Mark aimed for his mouth and it easily caught it from the air, swallowing it whole. 

 

Seeing how he had fed his dinner to a Dragon, Mark found himself forced the join the public dinner held in the city hall every evening. Everyone who wanted could attend and get food there. It had been a tradition as old as the village, every chief was responsible for a few hundred people, after all, and none of them should ever have to go hungry. 

He helped himself to some chicken and potatoes and decided to sit on the table the other trainees had hogged. Far to the side, of course. He didn’t WANT to become the laughing stock. But he also didn’t know where else to sit. Johnny would have been an option, but he sat with other adults Mark was even more uncomfortable around.

“My side hook was way too weak.” Renjun was currently explaining something. Gesturing to mimic a hook. It looked nothing but perfect and Mark would kill to be able to throw a punch like him. 

“Yeah, we noticed.” Chenle chewed with his mouth open. 

“If that happens during the Final Battle, you’re pretty much dead meat.” Jaemin agreed. Mark nibbled on the skin of his meat. 

“Yeah, because a Dragon always goes for the kill.” Sooyoung chipped on. The group nodded earnestly. 

“What if it doesn’t, though?” Mark asked, realising he had voiced the question loud only after already having spoken, as all heads snapped to face him.

“Oh, Markie, but there’s no exceptions to that rule.” Yerim teased. 

“Yeah. Wasn’t it you who almost got fried by the Gronckle the first day?” Jisung tapped his chin, like he was in deep thought.

“Well, yes, but the Gronckle was… worked up. Maybe if we hadn’t been chasing it, it wouldn’t have felt the need to.”

“Mark, seriously, I know you think you’re so much better than us and know it all, but really, this is getting absurd.” Renjun suddenly cut in, voice hard. Mark jerked away. He didn’t think that… What the hell, literally every single person on this table was ten times cooler than him.

“Yeah. With that mindset… no wonder Taeyong’s worried about you. You should work a bit harder to, you know, become a good Warrior. Help the village.” Jaemin agreed with his friend. 

“But what if we’re misunderstanding them?” Mark tired again.

“Seriously? Misunderstand? We’re at war! Do you think this is some sort of petty fight, like the ones Chenle and Jisung are constantly in? The Dragons are trying to ruin us, kill us all, but you take their side because they might be misunderstood? Wake up, special snowflake, Dragons are vicious creatures here to rip you to shreds. But if you want to pick their side – fine, but then don’t pretend to be a suitable leader for the village.” Jeno’s voice was cold and Mark shrunk into himself.

If they knew his Dragon… 

No! They wouldn’t hesitate. Where Mark hadn’t been able to bring down his knife, the others surely would have.

They could never meet him. It was Mark’s duty to keep him safe. He couldn’t… he couldn’t even think about someone harming the beautiful creature, his heart squeezing painfully at the thought.

But if they thought Mark felt himself above them, expected to become the village chief after his father – no wonder they didn’t like him. 

Where should he even start to clear up that mess of misunderstandings?

Well, for now the answer was simply: nowhere, because everyone had grabbed their plates and was leaving the table. Renjun shot him a disapproving look, Jaemin glared at him and hurried to get closer to Jeno immediately after.

Mark sighed.

 

“Hello there!” Mark whispered, as he slowly approached the Dragon. It hung upside-down off the branch of a tree, covered with its wings, looking like a weird type of bat. The tails was looped over the branch to keep him up, but it seemed to be woken by Mark’s voice, the wings pushing aside to reveal the bright green eyes – upside-down.

Why was the Dragon even still here? Mark had come fully prepared to not find it, but it seemed it feel quite at home on the clearing. Maybe all the trips over the ocean were misled? Maybe the Dragons actually lived deep in the vast forests surrounding Berk, where no one ever went?

“I brought food!” Mark announced and dumped the small bag of fish he had stolen from the port. 

The Dragon flopped off the tree and came towards Mark, nose twitching. It was still a bit scary, but Mark was sure the Dragon wouldn’t think he was the dinner, rather than the fish.

“Look! We have all sorts. Uh… sea salmon, cod, oh! I even brought eel!” Mark held up the fish.

The Dragon jerked backwards, baring its teeth and growling his direction. Mark immediately felt adrenaline spike, but it didn’t seem to direct its anger at him, but rather… the eel?

“Uh, not good?” Mark quickly hid the fish behind his back. Eel had a rather strong pattern, maybe the Dragon didn’t like that?

Apparently, because it went back to happy and peaceful, the flaps around its head relaxing, as he dove down and started inhaling the fish.

“Hey, slow down, you’ll choke if you eat too quickly.” Mark scolded without fire but went ignored. For all the times the Dragon seemed to be able to understand him, it also seemed to have selective hearing.

The Night Fury finished in record time and then looked at Mark expectantly.

“Oh. Oh no, I already had dinner. Yep! No need for fish. Thanks a lot.” Mark quickly waved his hands. The Dragon nodded and licked its mouth clean.

The evening sun barely broke the trees, but there was one ray of sun that shone onto the Dragon’s head. The light got completely absorbed by the black scales. It was mesmerising, and before he knew it, Mark was reaching out towards the reptile. 

The scales were smooth under his hand, smooth, but hard, like a rock that had been in a river for long and gotten washed down to a sleek surface. It felt warm, too, warmer than Mark’s skin.

It lowered his head so Mark could reach more and he started to gently run his hand over the expanse of the skull, reaching the ears and antennas to the back. A purr game from the Night Fury’s chest, peaceful and deep.

“Huh. You like that?” Mark whispered and travelled his hand towards the eyes, closed to enjoy the petting. “Why? Why aren’t you like they say you are? Why are you so… cute?” he muttered, asking himself more than the Dragon. He wouldn’t get a reply, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw the third part of HTTYD yesterday and it was really nice. I was sort of annoyed with the "oh the female Dragon has to be super soft and it sparkles" but she had other good traits to make up for their super-weird character design. If you're curious to read more on why, [this](http://irrevocably-voltron.tumblr.com/post/174466599863/hey-whats-up-that-httyd-3-poster-got-me-fucked) is a very interesting blog post about it.  
> There won't be any Light Furies in this story, just fyi, but there will be more Night Furies. :)
> 
> SPOILER!! But what was up with the baby Dragons, like... why are they Panda-coloured? In the dub they said males were black and females white? Are all of them intersex/nonbinary? I mean, yay for representation, but I don't think that's what they intended to do there...
> 
>  
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	5. Chapter 5

“Today’s lesson is about team work!” Doyoung announced.

Brilliant. Ever since that fight, the others had kept their distance from Mark, visibly avoiding him, where it could have been coincidence before.

“Which Dragon relies on teamwork in everything it does?”

Several hands flew up. After disqualifying Jisung the first time, the trainees had taken the Book of Dragons a lot more serious.

“Sooyoung?”

“The Hideous Zippleback, as it has two heads that need to work in unison to light its fire.”

“Exactly.” Doyoung looked proud. “One head breaths gas, the other one lights it. Now, every team takes two buckets and will try and identify the head that lights the gas to explode it, then douse it down with water.”

Yuta waved from the stands “Oh and just as a warning, seeing might get hard, because, you know… gas. But if anyone seems to be dying, I’ll try and send Doyoung to save you. No promises though.”

Amazing.

Because they were an even number, Mark somehow ended up with Yerim in his team.

“You better not take the Dragon’s side in this.” She hissed, as they picked up buckets.

“I… you misunderstood!” Mark muttered.

“Did I? Because you never really care enough to talk to us anymore. I get it. With your dad being chief and you working for Johnny, you’re so much more important than us measly peasants.” She spat.

“Less bickering, more finding the Zippleback!” Yuta hollered from above. Yerim huffed and started marching into the slowly rising cloud of grey-green gas. Mark hurried to follow her, because the fog was already thick and he’d risk losing her. Mark clearly heard the screeching for a Dragon pretty close by.

“Got it!” Jisung shouted to their right.

“It’s us, idiots!” Chenle screamed back.

“Wow, you got fat, I thought you were a Dragon!”

“Don’t listen, there’s nothing wrong with a Dragon-esque figure! You’re still beautiful, Jeno!” That was Jaemin. It was followed by the sound of someone getting punched and water being thrown.

“Chenle, out, if you don’t have water on you, you can’t act. Jeno, you’re out by relation. And don’t punch other team-members.” Yuta shouted.

“Hey, stop it.”

“It’s all your fault!”

“That hurt!”

Mindless screaming followed and the sound of teeth snapping and the crackling of the static that lit the Zippleback gas. A boom from an explosion shook the arena.

“Jisung, Jaemin, out. But nice try, I guess.” Yuta sounded bored. Mark gripped his bucket tighter.

“Come on, move your ass, I want to find that damn lizard and before Sooyoung and Renjun do.” Yerim hissed and picked up the speed. Mark wasn’t even sure where they were going. In a circle? Straight lines? Anything was possible, because he didn’t see for shit.

“Over there!” someone shouted, far away from their current location in thinner smoke. Yerim cursed, when the cracking of electricity was stopped by the splash of water.

“Good job!” That was Sooyoung.

“Renjun, Sooyoung, pass. Come on you two, you can do it!” Yuta lazily cheered.

Yerim seemed to be fuming, taking big steps across the gymnasium. Mark lost some of the water from his bucket as he tried to keep up, and then suddenly, a green head with a big horn on the nose, large spikes sticking from its neck, poked out of the fog.

“Gottcha!” Yerim snarled and dumped her water over the head. Wait! It hadn’t even opened its mouth yet, what if…

The Dragon hissed back at the girl, clearly agitated from being doused down. Its jaw opened and a stream of green gas shot from its throat, encasing her.

“Fuck.” Yerim paled and Mark snapped his head around, looking for the other part of the Dragon. If it got ignited like this, she’d burn to death. Yerim seemed to come to the same realisation and turned on her heel, running the opposite direction.

“Yerim! Where’s Mark?” Yuta hollered and Mark quickly reached into his leather vest, where he had hidden a piece of cloth, coloured the same way the eel from yesterday was.

The second head emerged from the smoke, opening its mouth to reveal the bursts of light crackling in its throat, but Mark waved the cloth once, and both Dragon heads jerked backwards in fear.

Success!

Mark grinned to himself and wrapped the cloth around his neck, like a scarf.

“Back! Back off! Bad Dragon!” Mark stepped towards them and the Dragon actually retreated, eyes stuck on the scarf.

Mark got out of the thick cloud of smoke to where Yuta would see him again. The teacher was calling something, but Mark wasn’t listening. He aimed for the head on the right, the one that had sparked a moment earlier, and a wave of water came down over it.

The Zippleback shook itself.

“Mark, Yerim, pass.” Yuta called, but Mark didn’t stop there. He kept backing the Dragon towards the wall, where its cave had been. Doyoung stood next to the gate, watching with wide eyes as the Dragon he’d otherwise had had to catch and lock up again, backtracked from where Mark was marching towards it.

It didn’t notice it was trapping itself in its cave, until Doyoung pulled the lever and the iron bars came down.

“Well, that was impressive, Mark. Not bad.”

“Thanks.” Mark forced a smile.

He glanced at the others. There were some surprised faces, as well as some confused ones.

“What?”

“Oh, well, we thought you were going to just… you know, not fight Dragons.” Yerim shrugged.

“Yeah. It’s good to know you’re actually still on our side.” Jaemin assured. Everyone nodded.

Everyone, but Renjun, who kept frowning. But Mark didn’t notice, too surprised to get patted on the back in encouragement.

 

The fish was sort of smelly today, but Mark would put up with it, because it meant the Night Fury would be happy.

But there was no Dragon on the clearing. Instead, where was a boy… a boy Mark had seen before, thought had thought it was his imagination. Yet, here he was, sprawled on his back in the grass where the sun was still hitting the ground, one hand on his slowly rising and falling chest. His clothing was white, a beautiful pure colour that no one in Berk ever wore, because blood and ash didn’t wash out well.

Mark hesitated and stared at the stranger more intensely.

His skin was tanned, and his statue seemed rather small, but bulky. Mark crept closer to see his face more clearly. Wavy black hair was framing it and Mark was 100% sure he had never seen this person before. Which was odd, because Mark knew everyone in Berk and one single boy travelling from Freezing to Death or Hopeless? That was way too dangerous!

There were freckles over his nose that started to twitch.

Mark was leaned over him now, wondering why he was sleeping here, in the middle of the forest, when he ripped his eyes open and jerked upwards with a yelp.

Mark didn’t get the chance to pull his head away and their forehead collided painfully.

“Ow!” Mark groaned and pressed a fishy hand against his skull.

“Fucking lava pit.” The boy under him whined, mirroring the pose. His voice was high, higher than Mark’s. It sounded nice.

Mark blinked his eyes open, pushing past the tears threatening to spill out. Crying so wasn’t cool, he was not going to cry, nope, no way!

His eyes met the stranger’s and Mark couldn’t stop the scream that left his lips.

Instead of brown orbs, that he was expecting, bright green ones with slit pupils stared back at him. Very familiar green eyes.

“Fuck, what the hell?” Mark jumped up and hurled himself away, but didn’t get far, as his legs gave out under him.

The boy sat up and watched him in mild amusement.

“You know, you’re really quite the drama queen.” He commented with a chuckle.

“What? How? You? The fuck?” Mark glanced around, but no Dragon to be found, only the freckled boy with the unsettling eyes.

“Wow, eloquent, too. I’m so impressed, my heart is fluttering!” the stranger cooed mockingly “I’m Haechan. Or Donghyuck. Both work.”

“You’re… you’re… you’re…”

“I’m?” Haechan-Donghyuck cocked his head. He was cute, and he shared the mannerism of a certain large, black reptile that he also shared the same eyes with…

“You’re the Night Fury?” Mark burst.

“Yeah.” The other nodded, like it was obvious.

“But, but, but…”

“Can you not repeat your words 100 times?” Donghyuck whined “I know, I’m a blessing to be around, a grace by nature, but it makes you hard to understand. Just saying.”

And then, everything went black around Mark.

 

He came to it from something being slashed on his face. Mark gasped and sat up. His hair was soaking wet and drips of water immediately rolled into his eyes.

“There we go.” A light voice chirped.

Mark rubbed his eyes and stared at the boy… Dragon?

So, he hadn’t dreamt?

“You’re really here to prove my point with you being a drama queen, aren’t you?” Donghyuck laughed.

“I’m not a drama queen.” Mark gasped. Loser, yes, but drama queen?

Donghyuck cocked his head, smirking. Mark’s heart skipped a beat. Those eyes, combined with such a pretty, seemingly human, face. It seemed to do something to his heart.

“It’s fine, it’s kind of cute. So. Is the fish for me again?” Donghyuck licked over his lips and Mark stared at the forked tongue that had poked out for a moment.

“Yeah. Yeah, I personally don’t like raw fish.” Mark mumbled and looked next to himself where the bag had fallen. Donghyuck took it and pulled out the first fish.

“You don’t like raw fish? What the hell? It’s the best! And I hate to admit this fish is actually not that bad. For… humans.”

He opened his mouth to reveal sharp teeth that he sunk right into the meat. Mark watched in a mixture of awe and terror.

“So. Uh. Donghyuck?”

Donghyuck looked up from the fish and Mark immediately forgot what he had wanted to ask. Those eyes… they were so beautiful.

“Yes? That’s my name?”

“Right. I was just asking… do you kind of hate humans? Or something?”

“Hm… or something.” Donghyuck nodded

Mark watched him wolf down half the fish – including the bones – before he dared to ask the question that had been on his mind for so long.

“Then why didn’t you kill me?”

Donghyuck put down the fish and silently stared for a few beats.

“You didn’t kill me, right?”

“Well, no, I couldn’t. But I wanted to, I mean, I shot you down. With I’m really sorry for, by the way. But I always thought Dragons were these dangerous monsters that only wanted to kill us all.” Mark admitted, not daring to look at Donghyuck while he made these allegations.

“Huh.” Donghyuck muttered “You know, you’re actually surprisingly much braver than I would have expected you to be.”

“Um. Thanks?” Mark felt his face heat up. No one, not even Johnny, not even his baby cousin, had called him brave before. Then again, telling a guy who could shift into a quite lethal, fire-breathing Dragon, that you had intended to kill him? Maybe that was sort of brave? Dumb, but brave?

“Honestly, I personally only tried to annoy you a little. But those pests that seek you out all the time? They’re only causing so much destruction because you don’t handle them right. If you come with aggression, they get more aggressive and so on. Don’t you know anything about how to train an animal? You humans have these little mammals with you, you manage to train those!”

“Do you mean dogs?” Mark stuttered, hearing Donghyuck’s words confirm the assumptions he had come to himself over the last days.

“Maybe? You need to enforce positively, then the Dragons are pretty nice to be around. Well, as long as they get food. But you humans are too short sighted to see that. That’s why I don’t like you. Trying to kill me, that’s not very polite.”

“I’m really sorry.” Mark mumbled, feeling even worse about the whole thing. It really wasn’t the way to go.

“Hm. I’m feeling generous. And you’re kind of cute, so I’ll forgive you.” Donghyuck announced.

Mark heard the blood rush in his ears.

He? Cute?

“Aw, look, you turn red! That’s such a funny thing humans do!” the Dragon reached forward and squeezed Mark’s cheek, who promptly turned an even deeper shade of red.

“You still didn’t answer why you didn’t kill me.” Mark asked, voice obscured by his cheek being held.

“Hm. You know, I could give you some tricks to Dragon training. The correct type. You look a little skinny. I wouldn’t want you to get munched by a Gronckle.”

For the first time in his life, the adjective didn’t feel like a belittlement, not laced with disappointment or disapproval. It was just to describe him – quite accurately so – and the result was that he needed some pointers – also accurate.

“You would do that?” Mark asked wide-eyed.

Donghyuck seemed to hesitate for a moment, and then his cheeks turned a soft purple. Was that… was that a blush? A Dragon blush?

“Yeah, well, I offered.” He quickly shoved the rest of the fish into his mouth – the head, why was he eating the head? It crunched under his teeth and Mark shuddered from second hand grossness.

 

When he headed back home much too late to still get dinner, Mark realised he had never gotten the answer why Donghyuck hadn’t killed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155) (btw I will go ahead and delete any hate, I really don't have the time to deal with your narrow-minded "opinions")


	6. Chapter 6

“What a beautiful day it is today!” Yuta shielded his eyes from the sun.

“To celebrate the weather, we decided to let you fight against a Gronckle with actual, iron weapons.” Doyoung announced. Roar of approval echoed from the trainees, metal rattling. Mark clung to his heavy axe in worry.

“Can we kill it?” Jisung hollered.

“I’d like to see you try. But for now, it’ll be enough to knock it out.” Yuta grinned.

“Well, if it’s knocked out I can kill it for sure!” Yerim clenched a fist. Mark started to hide behind his shield. The whole knocked out Dragon hit a bit too close to home, his thoughts going back to Donghyuck.

Donghyuck, and his adorable freckles, his beautiful tanned skin, his unique eyes, his teasing nature, despite which he had showered Mark in more side-handed compliments than anyone since Johnny ever had.

“No! We still need it, not to mention killing something knocked out doesn’t require a lot of skill.” Doyoung crossed his arms, muscle flexing. Mark quickly looked at his own arms, but no surprise muscle had built up over night.

“Alright, you have ten seconds to scatter around. Shush!” Yuta waved his hands and immediately the crowd dispersed.

“I was going to go there.” Chenle complained, as Mark hurried to take cover behind the wall to which shields were normally mounted.

“No, I was here first. Go away!” Jisung argued back, while Mark reached into his pocket, fingers closing around the small bundle of grass he had plugged upon Donghyuck’s advice.

He wasn’t really confident this was actually going to work and not just some joke. But he also had no reason to mistrust the Night Fury. Still, it didn’t seem wise to be first in line, whatever the scenario may be, so hiding it was.

The gate rattled open, downing out the fight between Jisung and Chenle momentarily, and the sound of the hectic flapping of Gronckle wings immediately picked up.

Mark’s palm was sweaty around his axe, the heavy weapon slowly slipping from his grip. The Grockle straight away focussed on the bickering friends though, and with one bump into Chenle that simultaneously had his tail knock into Jisung, the two got themselves disqualified in record time.

Yerim was the first one to run towards the Dragon, her sword raised with both hands, as she belted out a war cry and headed at the reptile. However that drew its attention straight onto her and the Gronckle sent a fireball her direction. She managed to avoid getting hit straight on, but the force of the explosion right next to her let her fall backwards and one of her shoes caught fire for a few seconds until the flame ran out of material to eat, as the Dragon leather used in most clothing was fire-proof.

“Yerim, out!”

“Damn it!” Yerim screamed, but hurried off the field, as the Gronckle started flying in a big circle around the arena.

The Dragon didn’t get far, because Renjun and Jeno were still remembering their first lesson. Mark watched in awe as the hit their weapons on their shields to disorient the flying animal successfully. The Gronckle slammed into a wall and went down.

Sooyoung charged towards it, but it recovered just in time to dodge her hammer and breathe out a flame that hit her lower body.

“Sooyoung, out.”

Mark winced in sympathy as she hobbled off the field. That must have been too hot to still feel nice.

However, the Dragon had somehow decided that Mark was going to get blown up next, rather than Jaemin or Jeno, because it had its eyes set on him, making a beeline for the wall where Mark was kind-of-hiding.

Panic rose in his gut, as Mark grabbed the grass and yanked them from his pocket.

“Mark, watch out!” Doyoung hollered from the side and Mark prayed there was some sort of supernatural being that’d save him, but then the Dragon’s aggressive approach suddenly dropped. Its eyes widened in happiness, as the big pointed nose twitched quickly, sniffing out the grass.

It flopped onto its belly right in front of Mark, who started rubbing the grass just below the Dragon’s nose, hoping to keep it happy, but unsure what to do next.

“Uargh!”

With a scream, Renjun launched himself up and brought down the dull end of the handle of his axe on the Dragon’s skull.

Mark stared in utter shock for a few seconds, as the Gronckle went lip and collapse onto the stone floor.

Renjun snorted and climbed off where he had landed on top of the reptile.

“You’re welcome.”

Mark snapped out of his stupor and tore his eyes from the Dragon. “I had it under control.” He mumbled. He had had. That hit had been unnecessary.

“Sure you did.” Renjun snorted and threw his axe over his shoulder. The teachers were already arriving and Yuta grabbed the unconscious Dragon to drag it back into its cave.

Mark quickly hid the grass in his pocket again. Renjun had probably only had good intentions. And he had had looked cool, swinging his weapon like that. But Mark hadn’t even properly watched him, too fixed on the Dragon.

He shook his head. He really had to get his priorities straight. If the others kept thinking Mark was a pretentious Daddy’s boy, he wouldn’t fare well confirming that by lecturing them on something they all didn’t have any real experience in yet.

 

Mark was slightly out of breath, when he arrived at the clearing late in the day, the sun already dipping behind the trees.

There was a black Dragon, hung up on the tree like wet laundry. Mark set down the bag with fish, wondering if it’d be wise to wake a Night Fury, or if he was setting himself up for a literal roast.

The Dragon’s wigs started twitching, and he slowly unfolded them, revealing bright green eyes fixed on Mark.

“Uh. Hi!” Mark waved. “I brought dinner?”

The Dragon made a gurgling noise and fluttered off the tree, landing gracefully on all fours. He immediately hopped over, his nose twitching cutely.

Mark shook out the bag, the fish flopping over the ground with wet noises and the Night Fury nudged him with his nose playfully, before diving down to practically inhale the food. Mark watched in slight awe, as he threw the fish in the air and caught it so effortlessly.

How could someone want to kill a creature this adorable, beautiful, and gentle?

“Thanks for the hint with the grass. It worked like a charm. Well, and then Renjun came up from behind and knocked the Dragon out, but he looked pretty cool doing so.” Mark sighed. Come to think of it, he hadn’t yet properly admired Renjun for his display of perfect technique.

Well, whatever.

The Night Fury licked his snout and looked up at Mark in disapproval. Mark blinked, and suddenly it was a boy standing in front of him again, piercing green eyes, tan skin, freckles, curly black hair, and NO CLOTHING?

Mark screeched and held his eyes shut.

“I swear I didn’t see anything!”

“What? The hell are you talking about?”

“Your clothes!” Mark whispered in panic.

“Oh. Those. Wait! Am I so hard to look at?” Mark could practically hear the pout in his voice.

“I don’t know, why would I want to look at you?” Mark felt his skin burn under his hands now.

“Fine, be a prude about it, but your loss.”

Steps disappeared and after a few minutes, Donghyuck yelled “I’m dressed now, you can look, human!”

He was in the same white clothing as yesterday, walking over towards Mark. He looked… simply stunning. Mark had to blink a few times, before collecting himself.

“So. This Renjun. Tell me more about him. I don’t think I like him very much.” Donghyuck crossed his arms.

Right. His crush. Mark’s brain did a 180 from thinking about beautiful, mysterious dragon boys to impressive, unreachable warriors.

“No, he’s the coolest. And the best fighter our age. And he’s so pretty. And he’ll not let anyone disrespect him!” Mark quickly explained, but Donghyuck seemed less and less impressed as he went, frown growing deeper on his face.

“You like him?” the Dragon asked, an accusatory undertone in his voice.

Mark had hardly recovered from his previous blush and was already feeling a new one burn on his cheeks. No one knew about his crush.

He’d be teased to death and back if the others did.

“Uh….”

“Hmpf. I don’t like him.” Donghyuck decided. “So. You have to be better than him! Buckle up, I’ll teach you how to train a Dragon.”

A second later, the black Dragon was back, the rip of clothing making Mark’s skin shrivel. However, there was no time to dwell on ruined clothes and more naked, beautiful human-Dragons, because Mark was grabbed by sharp talons, that dug into the leather of his clothing, and with one flap of the pitch-black wings, the Dragon took flight.

Mark screamed.

But he didn’t get dropped, instead held tightly to Donghyuck’s tummy as the rocks on the ground got smaller and smaller, looking like pebbles and they broke through the tree tops. From here, you could see over the forest, over the cliffs far over the ocean. Mark saw Berk, small and meaningless where it was carved into the mountains.

The wind was cold and whipped into his face, however the spike of adrenaline made him numb to that, as he stared around in awe.

It was beautiful, magnificent. A view that no human was normally granted. This was what Dragons experienced on a daily basis?

But then he looked downwards and holy Dragon Spike, was the ground far away. Mark clutched onto the Night Fury’s legs that held him quickly looked up against the soft neck of the Dragon, where black scales layered over each other. He suddenly felt like he wasn’t meant to be up here…

Donghyuck seemed to know exactly where to go, because they soon descended on a small island not far into the sea. The rocks were dark grey, rather than the lighter stone the ground where Berk lay was made of, and it was much too high above the water splashing into them for any human to get onto.

Mark was set down gently and stumbled a few steps before falling against the warm skin of the Dragon, where he found purchase to hold himself upright.

“Wow, that was… that was something.” He whispered. The Dragon made that giggling noise, as one wing wrapped around Mark protectively.

He looked around and with a yelp he immediately pressed himself tighter against the warm, familiar figure of the Night Fury.

Dragons. Dragons everywhere, all sizes, all colours, just flying around, sleeping, eating.

Some of them seemed to have noticed their arrival and they came closer, sniffing in curiosity and interesting. Mark didn’t have any grass on him, he didn’t even have the smallest knife. How was he supposed to survive this?

With a panicked whimper, he tried to push himself into Donghyuck, who laughed louder, and with only a small wave of his wing, he dispelled the curious Dragons, who backed away.

The Night Fury started walking and Mark had to follow along, watching in awe as the reptiles easily parted to let them pass.

No fire breathing, no chasing, nothing. The Dragons only minded their own business, save for those curious about the human.

Donghyuck led him towards a cave cut into the mountain and Mark wasn’t sure if this was such a safe place to be, however he didn’t seem to even get the chance to find out if the inside meant his immediate death, because another Dragon came shot out from the darkness, eyes glowing yellow.

The moment light hit the black scales and the whole body became visible from where it had been masked by the darkness, Mark gasped and grabbed onto Donghyuck so tightly it must hurt at this point.

Another Night Fury!

The new Dragon growled, baring sharp teeth at Mark, however, Donghyuck pushed his head in front of him, blocking the view and getting the other’s attention.

They exchanged different sounds that made no sense to Mark, who only saw how the ears and flaps on Donghyuck’s head moved as he cocked it in an already familiar fashion.

The then, the black Dragon was suddenly gone from his side and Mark was clinging onto very human-feeling skin.

With the third yelp of the day, he ripped himself away, which made him stumble over his own feet and he landed clean on his face, feeling grime and dirt on his tongue.

Gross.

“It’s a pretty easily scared human, isn’t it?” an unfamiliar voice asked and Mark slowly, very slowly, raised his head and see where it had come from.

“Well maybe. But he’s my human, so back away and get your own, Jaehyun! We’re here to make him a skilled Warrior.”

His human?

Mark wasn’t sure what he felt over being claimed by a Dragon. But the feeling wasn’t bad. Nervous, maybe?

“Well good luck with that. Bet he’ll simply try to stab you once he knows how. You shouldn’t trust these… monsters.” The person, Mark assumed was Jaehyun and the other Night Fury, spat.

Monsters. So to the Dragons, they were the same as the Dragons were to them? What a sad thought!

“He’s not. Stop being mean to my mate!” Donghyuck sounded ready to fight now. Mark had sat up where he had smashed himself into the floor and glanced up to see this Jaehyun person, however he quickly averted his eyes, as he came to the realisation that clothing obviously didn’t survive the shift between full on Night Fury and human shape.

“Yes, well, I’ll tell you I told you so when he has an axe in your skull. I don’t want him in my home, or even near my home, so consider this a warning.” And with that, the stranger disappeared back into the cave.

“Sorry for that. He’s… made bad experiences. Anyway, let’s go and find a better place to practice.” A hand appeared in Mark’s vision, and he grabbed it and found himself back on his feet, pulled up with so much ease like he was a toddler and no taller than two arrows.

“What about – uh – clothes?” Mark asked, staring away pointedly.

“Oh. Right. Just a sec.”

Donghyuck darted away and Mark suddenly found himself very alone. A Terrible Terror sneaked closer, starting to sniff Mark’s ankles in curiosity. He tried his best to keep calm. It was all good. These Dragons were tiny and not known to kill, only causing extreme destruction where they went. Not to mention, this one was visibly relaxed.

It looked up at Mark, purple eyes full of curiosity.

“Hi.” Mark gulped.

The Dragon made a gurgling noise and started munching on the hem of his leather pants.

“Oh, you made friends already?” Donghyuck chirped and Mark looked up to see him. He was wearing white again and the thought of how elegant it looked up him invaded his mind.

“I – friends?” Mark asked in slight worry. Eating his clothing qualified for being friends?

Donghyuck leaned down and plucked the small Dragon off his leg.

“Yeah. Okay, come on, here’s not so good. I don’t want Jaehyun to come back and annoy us. Or fry you. Humans aren’t very fire-safe.”

 

By the time Donghyuck dropped him off at the clearing they had come from – letting Mark sit on his back this time, where he had wrapped himself around the Dragon’s neck with all fours in permanent panic to fall, the sun had set and the chill of the night slowly crept over the forest.

The walk back to Berk took longer than Mark remembered, and as he walked, he suddenly wondered….

What had Donghyuck meant by calling him his mate?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading~
> 
>  
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	7. Chapter 7

“Today, we’ll be learning how to avoid a Deadly Nadder’s spikes!” Yuta grinned, patting the lever of a cage.

“Spikes?” Jeno asked, voice laced with worry.

“That’s right boys and girls. A Nadder can throw about 50 nasty spikes off its spine. One attack holds between 5 to 10 and depending on the aim of the Dragon, they can hit quite well with them. To get them to throw requires some teasing, because these little beasts know their fire is much more dangerous and will try to fry you first.

“So, we had the honour to let this little beast here exhaust herself before you came.” Yuta grinned, like he had just announced he had had ten croissants for breakfast. There wasn’t a single burn mark on either of the teachers, unlike how the trainees usually looked after having a Dragon on the loose.

Mark sighed. He didn’t want to tease the Nadder until it shot spikes at him. There were much easier ways to make them calm…

“Let’s do this! I’m all fired up!” Jisung hollered.

“Oh yes? Well, I’m sure you’ll get stabbed.” Chenle snarled.

“Today’s rules are: make the Nadder throw her spikes, but don’t get hit. Once she’s all out – knock her out!” Doyoung explained.

“Can we kill it?” Yerim asked, leaning onto her axe.

“You’re not quite there yet, kids.”

The gate rattled and the Nadder stomped outside, visibly agitated, as her eyes darted around the trainees.

With a war cry, Jaemin and Jisung charged at her, banging their weapons against her legs. The Dragon started snapping her jaws at them, but they were gone too quickly. Mark watched in worry as the others started pissing the Dragon off.

“Will you literally be of any help?” Renjun hissed at him, pushing him towards the Dragon the same moment that she started shaking herself.

Sharp spikes flew through the arena, but Mark managed to jump away just in time to avoid getting hit.

The Dragon hadn’t even finished, when Jeno launched the next attack at her to annoy her.

She immediately took aim again, missing the trainees once more.

“You looked so hot and sexy, Jeno!” Jaemin hollered from somewhere and Mark internally groaned.

“Stop it, I wanted to get to her.”

“No, me.”

“You’re good for nothing, go home!”

“No, you go home!”

“I will not.”

Jisung started tearing at Chenle’s hair and the other dug his fingers into the taller’s sides. The Nadder eyed them for a moment, before turning, her spine now the direction where the two were fighting.

Mark immediately fell into action, seeing some others do the same. He saw Jeno and Sooyoung raise shields to guard the two bickering boys, so Mark headed towards the head of the Nadder, recalling how Donghyuck had explained he had to move his fingers.

He had made Mark try it on himself, allowing him to scratch just below his jaw. It wasn’t the block point, where you’d take the Dragon out, but it was like ear-pets for puppies. Donghyuck had purred against him and Mark remembered how soft his skin had felt.

The spikes flew before he managed to get to the Dragon, a shrill cry of pain ripping through the arena. The Dragon had her eyes narrowed on Mark and started to turn to be able to aim at him, but he swallowed away his fear and reached out.

Her skin was rough and warm under his fingers, not even nearly as nice as Donghyuck had felt. But Mark ignored the sensation and started scratching.

The Nadder’s aggressive stance immediately faltered. Her wings relaxed, flopping down, and her whole body started lowering towards the ground quickly. Her eyes closed and Mark reached around and pressed two fingers under her skull.

The Dragon flopped onto the ground limply.

Mark looked around and saw Renjun come towards him, axe raised, however as the Dragon collapsed, he came to a stuttering half, brows furrowing at Mark.

He threw him a careful smile.

“Good job Mark. Guess we’ll have to take a break.” Yuta announced. His attention was drawn away from the Dragon, towards where Chenle and Jisung were.

Apparently, a few spikes hadn’t been held off by Jeno’s and Sooyoung’s shields. Mark felt pity at the long, sharp needles that were embedded in Jisung’s leg and Chenle’s arm.

Jisung was still crying, while Chenle was passed out from shock.

“Let’s get these to the healer.” Doyoung announced.

“I’ll go.” Yuta hurriedly announced. Doyoung rolled his eyes, but stepped away as Yuta picked off the unconscious Chenle.

How Mark was chosen as the one to support Jisung he wasn’t sure. However, only ten minutes later, they found themselves in the healer’s hut. The scent of different herbs was thick in the air, candles burning despite the sun shining inside.

Sicheng was eying the spike in Jisung’s leg, while Chenle nursed a cup of water, face white as a chalk.

“This is what happens when you let these children fight without proper supervision.” He hissed, fixing Yuta in a glare that made Mark shrink away despite not even being on the receiving end of it.

“But you can fix it, right, Winko? You’re the best healer since generations.”

Sicheng’s eye twitched at the endearment. Mark would prefer to face a Monstrous Nightmare right about now. But no one had asked him – yet again.

“I can.” He stepped over and pulled a glass bottle from a shelf with a label reading “Venomous Vorpent”. He soaked a cloth in it and stepped over, holding it under Jisung’s nose. The effect was almost immediate, as the boy’s eyes rolled back and he fell onto the bench on top of which he sat.

“All bystanders go outside now.” Sicheng announced, sending Yuta another glare. Mark was all too happy to leave.

“I’m sure you’ll do great! Hey, how about I treat you to dinner tonight in return?” Yuta asked, smiling brilliantly.

“No. Out. Now.”

“Of course, Winko! Remember, the offer stands!” Yuta chirped, before grabbing Mark to drag him outside.

That had only been mildly disturbing.

 

The good thing about Jisung and Chenle getting bloodily stabbed was that training ended early. Mark didn’t even bother returning to the arena and ran straight into the forest, his legs already working by pure muscle memory as he returned the clearing.

Donghyuck was in human form, drawing by pressing a stick into the dirt.

“Hey Mark.” He waved and Mark’s heart did a little summersault in his chest. Weird. That usually only happened when Renjun was doing extremely cool things.

“Hi. What are you drawing?”

“It’s you!” Donghyuck announced. Mark squinted at the stick figure.

“What’s that on my head?”

“Your hair?”

“But…” Mark raised a hand and self-consciously dragged it through the strands. Crispy burnt curls caught on them and he accidentally tore on it. “Ouch!”

“Anyway, my day was ridiculously boing so far, what did you do?” Donghyuck asked, while shamelessly tugging on the bag that smelled of fish over Mark’s shoulder.

“Oh, Chenle and Jisung got shot by a Deadly Nadder during training, so we were sent home early. And! I used the scratching to distract her and then knocked her out.” Mark couldn’t hold a small smile, full of pride over his achievement.

Despite the small success being quite major to him, he hadn’t expected anyone else to really celebrate it. But Donghyuck screamed in joy and jumped around his neck, which unbalanced Mark, so he felt right on top of the Dragon, who was squeezing him mercilessly.

“That’s so great!”

Mark gasped for air, while trying not to push into Donghyuck too hard, scared to hurt him, but it seemed like his scaled friend was much more sturdy than the regular human.

“No worries, in no time you’ll be the best Dragon trainer out there.”

Mark gurgled and Donghyuck finally let go, allowing him to take a few lungs full of life-saving oxygen.

“What does the best warrior gain? Fame? Fortune? Endless adoration from fans?”

“Uh, you get to kill your first Dragon in front of an audience?” Mark gulped.

“Oh.”

There were a few moments of silence and Mark tried to make himself appear very tiny and very unthreatening with mediocre success.

“Do you… want to? I mean, it’s… we eat fish, so I guess you could just think of it as being that.” Donghyuck asked softly, much more understanding than Mark would have expected. Donghyuck overall was nothing like what he kept expecting him to be, different from anyone Mark had met before.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I can pretend it’s a fish.” Mark muttered. “I’d probably fail and everyone would see and it’d be super embarrassing and my dad would be like “son, all I ask is to try your best, so if that was your best, it’s all what I could want” but actually be super disappointed and get more grey hair and I’d definitely never get a date with Renjun.” Mark groaned.

Donghyuck bristled.

“Why would you want a date with Renjun, anyway?”

Mark thought of the boy and waited for his heartbeat to pick up, but it never did. Weird. But he knew exactly why!

“He’s the coolest! He’s so pretty, and mature, and strong, and his fighting is really amazing.”

“I’m pretty, too.” Donghyuck muttered.

“What?” Mark blinked at him.

“Nothing. Anyway. That’d be really… bad. But have you ever considered… showing them how to go at it differently? Show the Dragon being docile and cuddly?”

Mark considered the idea.

“I don’t know if I’m good enough at that.” He muttered.

“No worries. I’ll make you so good even a Screaming Death will want to cuddle you.” Donghyuck beamed and started stripping his white shirt. Mark turned to give him privacy until he was nudged by a black wing.

 

Jisung and Chenle were back the next day, both patched up and Jisung was especially giggly, looking slightly out of it.

“Today, we’ll fight the Terrible Terror! Small, not deadly, but hard to kill.” Doyoung crouched down next to a tiny door.

“Can we kill it?” Jaemin hollered in excitement.

“No.” Yuta groaned, rolling his eyes.

“Boring.” Yerim muttered.

“They’re ridiculously hard to catch. You won’t need any weapons today, wear your gloves and you’re good to go. Whoever catches it, wins.” Doyoung grinned. The armour landed in a pile and Mark checked the shiny button on his vest. When he turned it just so, it cast a small beak of light on the ground. Perfect.

The door opened with a small creak and a tiny dragon hopped outside. Its tongue lolled from its mouth and it stared at the waiting crowd for a second, before all hell broke loose. Jaemin, Yerim, and Chenle immediately launched themselves at the Dragon, trying to grab it, but ended up smashing into each other, with the Dragon easily flying over their heads.

They ran after the Dragon in different directions. Jeno almost grabbed it, Renjun actually got the tail, but it broke free again.

Mark failed to get its attention and then was run over by Sooyoung, finding himself in the dirt.

Jisung screeched and then the Dragon passed by Mark’s head at top speed.

He scrambled to his feet. This wasn’t over yet.

Well, it was for some, because Sooyoung and Jisung were passed out already.

Mark managed to catch the sun with his button and the Terrible Terror finally spotted it, yipping in joy.

It plummeted from the air and Mark lured it towards him. He darted down and grabbed the Dragon around its tummy. It immediately started to wiggle, but Mark quickly pressed his finger into the point on its neck and the Dragon went limp.

“Mark wins!” Yuta hollered.

He looked up and saw Jeno stare at him in awe, while Renjun looked mighty pissed. But there was no time to dwell on that, because Doyoung plucked the Dragon from his arms and Yuta announced a small break until the unconscious Trainees would wake up and then try training.

 

His plan to smoothly disappear for more Dragon training with Donghyuck fell flat, because when Mark left the gymnasium, Jaemin, Jisung, Chenle, Yerim and Sooyoung were suddenly crowded around him.

“Dude, that was really cool!”

“Yeah, I thought it was pure luck yesterday. But you’ve actually got skills.”

“Yeah, I kinda wanted to apologise. I was a bit sort of an ass, because I thought you were always hanging with Johnny because you thought we were too lame for you.” Jisung scratched his head.

“Same.” Jaemin nodded and Chenle offered a hand.

“Friends?”

Mark stared at the hand, then at Chenle. If this was a prank… but the other never pulled back, instead he shook hands with Mark with a bright beam and Jaemin slapped him on the back euphorically.

“I just thought boys were super dumb. I mean. They are. But. I guess we can kind of spend a little time.” Yerim shrugged.

Mark felt overwhelmed, as he walked up the path into the village between these people he had admired from afar for so long, partaking in conversation actively instead of being the punching bag… when they passed the blacksmith, Johnny gave him a small wave and a thumbs up.

Only, there were two people missing. And Mark felt his heart sink a little at the realisation.

 

“I thought you had ditched me.” Donghyuck was pouty.

“I’m sorry. But I made friends. With the others! Okay, save for Renjun and Jeno. But everyone else!” Mark beamed and the pout slowly melted off the Dragon’s face. “And I brought Salmon.” Mark wiggled the bag.

Donghyuck’s eyes darted down, then back at his face.

“Hm. I’m feeling very generous today. So I shall forgive you.”

Mark giggled and sat down next to him.

Donghyuck’s forked tongue licked over his lips, as he eyed the fish with deep adoration.

“You know. It’s kind of thanks to you. If I had continued being a failure in the rink, they’d probably think I felt above Dragon training. So. Thank you.”

Donghyuck had just sunk his sharp teeth in the fish, but froze at the words, big, green eyes slowly looking up and at Mark. His cheeks tinted purple a little. It was so pretty, despite the wet fish hanging from his mouth. How was he so cute?

Donghyuck snapped out of it and chomped down on the fish, before talking with his mouth full.

“Oh, you’re welcome, you’re welcome, I know, I’m a Dragon genius, but I love doing charity work.”

“Charity work?” Mark laughed.

“Well, you’re not that lost a case.” Donghyuck muttered, looking a little flustered. “So, about this Dendun person.”

“Renjun?”

“Hm, whatever. You should just ignore him.” Donghyuck’s eyes glinted and Mark wondered if Donghyuck was… jealous? An uncleared memory from a few days back came back to mind.

“Hey, speaking of. I was wondering – you said something about me being your human. Your mate, I think?”

Donghyuck choked on the fish and Mark hurried to pat his back until he was breathing properly again.

“Hahahaha… thaaaaat. That was just to… because of Jaehyun. Yeah. You know, he can be kind of aggressive. I mean. I’m not saying he’d have made Crispy Mark of you within one second flat, but… Plasma fire is very hot. We couldn’t have that, right?”

“Yeah. No. I’d rather not.” Mark mumbled. Still, Donghyuck’s steadily more purple turning face – while that being very adorable – hinted at this having a deeper reasoning. Mark should look this up.

 

No looking up ended up taking place, because when Mark returned to the village late at night, he only went to bed and was out like a light, waking with the rooster the next morning.

 

Mark managed to knock out the Hideous Zippleback the fastest and spent an hour after training helping Jaemin sharpen his sword.

Donghyuck took him on a spin to the rocks in the ocean you could barely see from the village and Mark was able to slowly let go of where he clung on for dear life and sit comfortably, as the Night Fury manoeuvred with so much finesse he never even got shaken.

It was the best feeling in the world, Mark decided. Having a friend who was a Dragon was the best thing in the world.

In return, Mark sneaked Donghyuck into the village, late at night. The houses were never locked, no one stole, there was no reason to, but Mark simply needed to let Donghyuck taste the honey buns that Irene baked.

He left a cupper coin in return on the counter, smuggling Donghyuck up the hill and into the chief’s hut.

Donghyuck licked them experimentally, and his eyes seemed to light up from within. Mark’s heart did the summer sault thing, before Donghyuck shoved the whole thing into his mouth, licking in fingers clean with admirable finesse.

“These are the best in the world!” the Dragon announced, while Mark wondered what the forked tongue felt like.

And like that, two weeks passed. Renjun kept giving him angry glares and Mark didn’t know what to do about it, but he was also too busy to really try, because between training, suddenly having friends that wanted to spend time with him, and caring for a Dragon, which seemed to not want to leave and demanded to be fed, despite probably hunting during the day when Mark was gone, there was no time left to wonder what had Renjun, and by extension Jeno, upset.

One time, Mark ran into Renjun training his axe throwing in the forest, but he managed to lose him before reaching the clearing.

And then there was that other time, when Donghyuck had blinked at him with big, round eyes, asking for more honey buns and Mark had stumbled into a bucket in the bakery that slammed down with way too much noise, and suddenly Renjun had called if there was someone there.

“It’s just me.” Mark had announced, leaning from the window, while pressing a struggling Donghyuck under the table.

“What are you doing in the bakery in the middle of the night?”

“You know… cravings for… honey buns.” Mark tried to smile winningly.

“You’re acting weird!” Renjun narrowed his eyes “Well, weirder. The others might fall for your little game. But I don’t. I know you’re hiding something. And I will figure it out. The future of the village depends on it.” He snorted, before marching off.

“What the hell’s that guy’s deal, I’ll go and tear him a new one, I will…” Mark grabbed Donghyuck’s arm, finding that his own was slowly starting to gain some definition to itself. He’d definitely have to inspect that further when he was alone…

“It’s fine. I’m sure it’s nothing. And if he sees your eyes…” Mark gulped.

“Fine. But I don’t like him. Who was that even?”

“Oh, that’s Renjun.”

Donghyuck immediately turned and tried to follow the other again, but Mark threw himself on top of him, tackling him to the ground and managed to stop him from doing so.

What was it with Donghyuck being weirdly jealous of Renjun?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading
> 
>  
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	8. Chapter 8

The moment the fleet of boats became visible on the horizon, the horns were blown.

“Alright ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be finishing for today. Nice and bright tomorrow!” Yuta announced, stretching his arms out.

Mark all but threw his borrowed shield away and ran home to put away his axe. By the time he was at the pier, there was a whole crowd of people. Some husbands, some wives, who had stayed back to look after the kids, some grandparents, and lots and lots of children.

Mark found Dejun, who was buzzing out of his skin where he was clutching to his dad’s leg. The two were waiting for his cousin Wendy and his aunt to return.

When it had been time to find a worthy new chief, it had been between her and Taeyong, the ultimate victory coming from his father slaying a Whispering Death, a terrifying creature Mark was glad he had never even seen before.

Luckily, her husband was her complete opposite and more than happy to stay home and babysit as she saved the world.

“Hi Mark. I heard you were doing very well during training.” His uncle smiled at him.

“Uh. I guess. Yeah. It’s going quite well. Thank, Kun.”

“Will you get your own Dragon soon?” Dejun asked with curious eyes. Kun ran a hand through his youngest’s hair, laughing fondly.

“No one gets their own Dragon, darling.”

“But Yangyang and Kunhang said, they work with Dragons now. So they must get a pet Dragon!”

“They don’t work with the Dragons, the work so we can be safe from the Dragons. Mark will maybe get the honour to kill one in front of everyone.”

“Kill? But… but why?” Dejun’s eyes welled up in tears “They’re so pretty and Taeil is always so nice and… and… and…” he hickuped and Kun picked him put, holding him on his arm, as the five-year-old started blubbering.

“Is he alright?” Mark wondered, feeling for his little cousin. Kun gently rubbed his back.

“He’s at the age where you start to understand what life and death means, and he insists that Jungwoo has a Dragon friend named Taeil.” Kun’s eyes got sad “If only the world was how a child saw it. Good and evil, clear and distinguishable… and good always winning.”

Mark felt his heart sink, as he processed the words. Surely it wasn’t easy for Kun to see his beloved ones leave. See his village get attacked. It certainly wasn’t easy for Mark!

Anchors were thrown and bridges put down. People came running, hugging loved ones. Mark spotted Yukhei helping others hop on shore, when a smaller figure ran towards the warrior.

“Xuxi!” the call was one of many, not special in any form, but it was the person calling that made Mark pay attention, dread starting to creep up on him, the slow realisation that his silly crush wasn’t only hopeless because he was a former loser and friendless weirdo.

“Junjun!” Yukhei opened his arms and caught the boy that jumped into them. They exchanged soft words that didn’t travel to Mark, before Renjun leaned down and kissed the returning warrior right on the lips. Mark looked away, trying to find his dad on one of the boats and give them their private moment.

It hurt.

But only a little. Not even nearly as much as it should have. Just how his heart hadn’t made these thundering sounds anymore when Renjun had excelled during training, or skipped a beat when the other looked right at Mark.

In his mind, there was a bright smile, a tan face with freckles, that sometimes turned a shade more purple, piercing green eyes with slit pupils, that made the pain over knowing his first crush would never be mutual hurt a lot less.

Mark found Johnny’s massive figure on a farther away bridge, talking to the smaller of his father. They were joined by Doyoung, who started telling something with wild gestures. Mark wondered if he should just wait or go over, when all three of them suddenly turned to look at him. Johnny was smiling, Doyoung was earnest, and his father looked shocked, before breaking into a proud smile.

If he knew Mark hadn’t been able to kill a Dragon, but befriended it instead…

“Mark!” The nasal voice of his dad was suddenly close and a heavy hand was slapped on his shoulder.

“Hi dad.” Mark all but stuttered.

“I heard you were trying your best at training!”

“Ye-ep.”

Taeyong nodded approvingly. “I told you, trying your best is all I ask from you, and hearing you succeed makes me very proud, son.” He got another slap on the shoulder.

“Uh. Thanks.” Mark nodded. He didn’t really tell his dad everything in his life. So he wasn’t technically hiding more than normal. But… for some reason not telling Doyoung, Yuta, or the others about the Dragon versus not telling his dad about felt different.

Thank Dragon Spike he wasn’t currently working with Johnny, or he’d probably have spilt long ago.

 

“What’s a father?” Donghyuck asked, handing Mark a really wet fish head. Mark closed his eyes and tried to think of a way to eat this and not throw up. He had reminded the Dragon several times that he didn’t like raw fish, but Donghyuck insisted it was the best and he had to enjoy it.

“You don’t have a father?”

“If you explain what it is, maybe I do?”

“Well, uh...” would Mark have to have the birds and bees talk here? “Like, parents? Mother? Family?”

Donghyuck munched on fish, face blank.

“Well you come from somewhere? The people who made you, those are your parents!” Mark tried.

“I don’t know about you, but I came from an egg, but you mean whoever laid that egg?”

“Yeah!” Mark had never felt so relieved in his life.

“Oh, humans stick around their eggs? That’s interesting. Well, Dragons just, I don’t know, raise themselves? I grew up in different swarms of baby Dragons until I was big enough to shift, then I started living with others like me.”

“You grew up with normal Dragons? Like Nadders?”

“Yeah.”

Mark felt a bit sick. “Oh Dragon Claw, then I definitely can’t kill any of them, they’re like your family!”

Donghyuck shrugged, popping the last fin into his mouth.

“I never used that title, but they’re all dear to me. I mean, other shifters are a different level. There’s a limit to these guys smartness.” Donghyuck ripped a fish from a Terrible Terror that had tried to steal it.

“Like Jaehyun? He’s not mad with you, is he?”

“No, he’s not. He only hates you, not me.” Donghyuck beamed. The tiny Dragon tried stealing another fish. Donghyuck growled at it and it stumbled away, but only for a little. It stomped tiny feet and took a deep breath, but before Mark had even finished worrying over third degree burns and crispy marinade on his skin, Donghyuck blew a small, blue flame towards it and it toppled over comically.

“Holy shit, you can breathe fire in human form?” Mark shrieked, dropping the delicious fish head that immediately got stolen by another lurking Terrible Terror. What a pity.

“Of course I can.” Donghyuck puffed his chest “That was nothing.”

He stood up and the Dragons immediately tried to snatch his fish, but Mark batted them away, keeping it safe for Donghyuck. They were close to the cave, but not close enough for Jaehyun to try and eat Mark. After bringing the fish so far, Mark wanted it to go to Donghyuck.

Donghyuck faced towards the ocean and Mark heard him take a deep breath. The sound of charging took up the air, making Mark’s hair stand on end, and then a burst of blue fire shot into the sky, turning into yellow and orange flames immediately, before burning out.

Mark clapped.

Donghyuck was a bit purple, but still bowed dramatically.

The warmth of affection spread through his chest like summer sun warming his skin, despite the light already getting low.

 

Mark wasn’t entirely sure why Johnny was cooking breakfast the next morning, humming under his breath, but he also wasn’t sure he really wanted to know.

“So, Mark. Only a few days left until the yearly Dragon kill in the arena. Are you excited?” his father asked. He looked even happier than Johnny, which was so out of the usual that Mark wanted to call Sicheng in and have him check his father. Or maybe Ten. Ten knew stuff about ghosts and trolls and fairies. Maybe his father had gotten exchanged from a different Lee Taeyong on his trip to finding the island of the Dragons? Or possessed…

“Yeah. Very.” Mark felt nauseous even at the thought of being locked into the arena with a Monstrous Nightmare and a few hundred people watching, probably riling the Dragon up, that would set itself aflame and them Mark would…

“I have a special gift for you.” His father rose from his chair with a groan like he was 100 years old and stiffly disappeared into the hallway. Mark looked after him in deep confusion.

“Here you go, sunny side up.” Johnny placed two eggs on top of Mark’s toast.

“Thanks.” Mark mumbled and picked up his fork.

By the time his dad finally re-appeared, he was nibbling on the rest of the crust that was left from his meal. His father set down a helmet with a clunk. Mark stared at the scratched steel, speaking of use. It was adored with a perfectly symmetrical set of Dragon horns, small enough not to look dumb on him.

“It… it used to be your mother’s. Not the horns. I replaced those. For you. I felt like… they’d match.” His father looked up with a smile that held the sadness of a widower that’d never pass. “I know she would have wanted you to have it.”

Mark swallowed and nodded, blinking his eyes a bit quicker as he dragged his fingers over the hard surface.

Now, if only Mark could show his father, that they could live in peace with the Dragons… if Taeyong believed him, everyone else would believe him as well.

But the person he had loved the first had been ripped from his side much to early by the fire of one of these creatures, further fuelling his father’s anger towards the reptiles.

Mark’s knuckles turned white where he was holding onto the helmet.

He had to succeed during the Dragon killing ritual!

 

Training with Yuta on the stands yelling complaints, or the occasional curious child or elderly person was one thing.

Training with his father and several other curious actual warriors watching was something different entirely. Doyoung and Yuta had put up small wooden hurdles to hide behind, separating them into teams of two to knock out a Dragon each.

Jaemin had taken out the Deadly Nadder.

Sooyoung had knocked the Hideous Zippleback unconscious.

And Chenle and Jisung had eventually managed to get a hold of the Terrible Terror, proceeded to get into a fight with each other, losing the Dragon again, and then by sheer luck the shield Jisung had thrown at Chenle had taken the small Dragon out clean from the air.

Mark had winced each time one of the Dragons was hurt.

His helmet was heavy and foreign, but Mark felt too proud to not wear it. He and Renjun were hidden behind one of the walls, and only heard the rattle of the gate, followed by the fluttering of Gronckle wings. Mark had long figured out the Gronckle lady they kept locked up here was a particularly hungry one, munching on the stones lying around happily, and also very easy to convince with some chin scratches.

She didn’t mean any harm. Yet Mark had an axe and a shield in one hand each, as did Renjun.

He was about to get up, but Renjun pushed him back down by his shield.

“I don’t care what you think you can do here, but I’m going to stop it, stop you, from ruining us all, so stay out of my way, got it?”

Mark stared at him in surprise, but Renjun’s face was earnest, brows furrowed in anger.

“What, I don’t…”

“Save it, traitor. I know you’ve been working with…. Them.” Renjun hissed “Killers!”

And with that, he jumped up, darting over the field, always keeping himself hidden and out of sight.

Mark tried to forget the words, because he got where Renjun was coming from. How he knew about Mark making friends with Dragons, he wasn’t sure, and that was what worried him. But right now wasn’t the time to figure it out and stop Renjun from sabotaging his plan to show the people Dragons were friendly.

Right now, it was time to show his dad he was rightfully proud, though maybe still for the wrong reasons.

Mark stood not to his full height, but visible for the Gronckle that was busy eating stones and flying around aimlessly. He ruffled the grass he had brought and got her attention. Maybe she already recognised him, and the Dragon flew towards Mark, who raised his shield to hide he was petting her, before using the back of his axe to press down on her weak spot and she want down like a sack of stones.

“Mark wins.” Yuta announced loudly and cheers erupted from the stands. Mark pushed back his helmet and glanced up, seeing his father look younger by ten years.

Suddenly, something cold and sharp was pressed against his neck and Mark snapped his eyes down to see Renjun closing in, the top part of his double-sided axe wrapping a bit too tightly around Mark’s neck.

“You think you can fool me? I will…” but before more threats could spill from Renjun’s lips, Yuta dragged him back.

“Now, now, we’re here to kill Dragons, not each other. Much more important things are to be decided. Today, the village eldest will choose this year’s champion, the one trainee to get the chance to kill a Monstrous Nightmare, right here where we stand.”

Mark looked around and suddenly found himself between Jisung and Yerim.

“After three weeks of tireless-training, these eight young men and women are ready to become true warriors and earn their badges of honour. But who will get the ultimate…”

“Doyoung, can you please get to the fucking point. Who’ll be killing a Dragon here tomorrow?” Yuta hollered.

The old woman looked between the eight teenagers slowly, taking them all in. Mark had noticed her watching a few times before. She had always made fair choices so far.

But what if she saw more potential in Renjun? Saw his superior skill? Mark needed this. He needed this chance more than anything else in his life before. Because he could change everything!

“Mark Lee!”

People screamed into his ear and before he knew it, Mark was lifted off the ground and thrown into the air.

 

“I’m so proud of you!” Donghyuck shouted right into Mark’s ear, as he twirled him around. Mark had the edge height wise, but in strength his faint muscle was nothing against a Dragon that flew around for hours on end. “I knew you could do it! I knew you weren’t one of those awful humans, who just killed for the pleasure.”

Mark stumbled over the ground, as Donghyuck let go of him.

“Who killed for pleasure, huh?”

Mark froze. That voice… how… why… when had Renjun come here?

He almost fell when he tried to snap around. Renjun’s axe caught the light for a moment as he slowly walked towards them. He carried himself with the confidence of a warrior, one that Mark could only dream to become one day.

“You!” Donghyuck hissed and stepped in front of Mark.

“Well, Mark, I think it’s time everyone in the village got to know that you were bonding with the enemy, don’t you think? Those, who ripped away hundreds over generations of our people. And you just want to forget that?”

“No, Renjun, I know what they did and I don’t want to erase it. But how many of them have we killed in return? At least ten times as many.”

“To defend those who we love!” Renjun shouted.

“But if we made peace with the Dragons, we wouldn’t have to defend ourselves!”

“Dragons are vicious beasts, you cannot make peace with them. You! Who are you even?” Renjun pointed his axe at Donghyuck, who bristled.

“That’s where we’re wrong. They’re not these monsters we make them out to be, they’re just like dogs. If you treat them right, they will shower you in love!”

“Oh yes. Is that want happened to your mom? To my mom? To my dad? Because I don’t recall that. You, it was you who planted those ideas in his head, wasn’t it? Who are you working for? Who pays you to send out village into the ultimate doom, getting slaughtered off by Dragons? Is it the Red Army?”

“Please, don’t be ridiculous, human.” Donghyuck snarled. Renjun hesitated, stopping in his tracks.

“Renjun, I don’t want to send our village into misery! I swear I don’t! But I think there’s a better way, which is living in peace with the Dragons.”

“I cannot believe you. There’s not a single Dragon who doesn’t go straight for the kill the moment it has the chance to. Show me one, only one Dragon, and I’m willing to change my mind. But you won’t be able to, because they’ll set you afire or rip of your head.”

Before Mark could utter another word, a rip echoed over the clearing and in Donghyuck’s place stood the magnificent black form of the Night Fury.

Renjun screamed.

And then, he turned and ran.

“No! Renjun!” Mark called, but the boy disappeared into the trees. “No… No, this can’t happen, he’ll tell dad and then… Donghyuck, we have to leave!”

But Donghyuck snorted, obviously having other plans. He nudged his head under Mark, picking him off the ground and Mark had barely wrapped his legs around the reptile, when he already pushed off the ground and took flight.

The rush of adrenaline was enough to make him shake, and Mark felt his hair get whipped around by the wind. But this wasn’t a moment to enjoy the wonder that was flight.

Donghyuck was already descending again, the sound of feet hitting the forest ground getting louder. And then, he plucked Renjun off his path and swung his wings once more, rising high into the sky.

“Help! Heeeeeeeelp!” Renjun screamed and Mark scooted over carefully to look down.

“Renjun, you said you would consider it!”

“This thing is trying to kill me!”

“No! You were trying to tell people and have him killed. Donghyuck’s super harmless, look at him, he’s literally the cutest.”

“Are you kidding me? He’s a gigantic, black beast an-aaaaaaah!” Donghyuck had dropped the boy and Mark screeched.

“No! We can’t kill him. Bad Dragon!”

Donghyuck gurgled a laugh, as Renjun caught himself on a tree, far above the ground with no way down.

Donghyuck flew a circle and landed on a higher branch, the wood immediately giving under the big Night Fury’s weight and Renjun cried out as he clung on for dear life.

“Mark! Get me the fuck down!”

“Only if you give it a chance! Listen to what I have to say!”

“I’m not going to listen to anything you have to say!”

“Then… let me show you.” Mark suggested. If Renjun experienced how it felt to fly… would feel the trust between him and the Dragon…

Renjun glanced down, but the ground was much too far away to have a chance of survival from up here. Then, he pulled himself up, climbing over the branches separating them and onto Donghyuck’s back, right behind Mark.

“Alright. Now… how about a nice little spin, Donghyuck?” Mark suggested and the Dragon slowly spread his wings. However, instead of the graceful flight Mark was used to, the Dragon pushed himself off the tree horizontally into the sky. Mark immediately clung onto his neck, hearing Renjun scream behind him.

“No! Slow, gentle!” Mark yelled over the furious wind in their faces. “I swear, this isn’t that it’s normally like.”

“You’re insane, Mark Lee, insane!” Renjun screeched into his ear, arms wrapped around Mark’s torso to hold on.

Donghyuck started to spin around himself and words left Mark’s brain momentarily, nausea taking over. Renjun had stopped screaming, but he was squeezing Mark entirely too tightly for comfort.

Just when the spinning finally slowly down and Mark thought it was time to relax, Donghyuck let himself drop from their air, like deadweight.

“This is crazy!” Renjun cried and Mark had to agree.

“Donghyuck! What are you doing? Please don’t kill us!”

But the Night Fury only snorted. Just before the touched the ice cold ocean, he spread his wings again and darted back upwards.

“Okay, Okay, I get it, I get it Dragon, I’m sorry. I really, genuinely am!” Renjun suddenly screamed.

And just like that, their flight became even and graceful, how Mark had experienced it so far. The sun was starting to set over the ocean and there was a gently wind into their faces. Mark felt Donghyuck purr under his hands.

They rose higher slowly, steadily, breaking into the clouds that turned pink from the light hitting them, and Mark felt safe to let go where he was holding on. Renjun seemed to feel the same, as his arms pulled away from where he was holding onto Mark and he instead held them out to touch the clouds that disappeared under his fingers.

They passed the rocks sticking from the waves, going low enough to see their reflections in the water and Mark couldn’t help starting to giggle. This. This was the best feeling in the world. He gently rubbed the black scales under his fingers.

“Okay, I’ll admit it, this is pretty awesome.” Renjun mumbled.

Mark had forgotten he was there for a moment.

“See? I told you so. If the rest of the village would see that, understand that… we could live in harmony… peace… wouldn’t that be better than any fame you can get from killing a Monstrous Nightmare?”

Renjun looked around.

“Yeah. Because then no one would get killed because they weren’t able to do so.” He whispered back.

Donghyuck turned around and Mark guessed they were headed back towards the clearing now.

“But how do you want to make them see? Your father… all the warriors… you can’t take each of them on a ride. Someone more skilled than me would have probably killed him before you could even move.”

Donghyuck growled and Mark rubbed his head soothingly.

“I know. But I’ll show them. Tomorrow, in the ring with the Dragon, I will show them that he’s not inherently evil. I’ll show them that I can pet him, no, that he wants to be petted much rather than fry me.”

“You… you can do that?”

“I hope so. Donghyuck showed me how.”

“Donghyuck, huh?” Renjun asked, glancing down, but not saying anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. I stuck pretty close to canon for this, because Astrid's ride is one of my favourite scenes, however, I completly cut the Green Death the movie has, because I want to take this a different direction.  
>  
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)
> 
>  
> 
> If you find Fox_155 on Twitter, that's me. I just don't know what I'm doing. But you can follow me. I don't know why you'd want to, though. It's the lamest twitter to ever be made, and its sole reason of existence is a wonderful person translating one of my fics I need to communicate with.


	9. Chapter 9

“Are you ready?” Taeyong proudly slapped Mark’s back.

Mark, in fact, was not ready, he was actually very un-ready and didn’t even manage to swallow down more than three bites of his breakfast.

“Like I always say, do your best, it’s all I can ask for.” Taeyong smiled at him and Mark nodded weakly.

The stands were buzzing with life, people pressing against each other to get a better view. It was sort of dangerous to watch, because a Dragon couldn’t leave through the metal bars, but it could very much blow fire beyond it, so Children had to stand further away.

Mark closed his eyes, trying to take even breaths. He recalled Donghyuck’s face, beaming at him in the faint glow of the moon yesterday.

‘I know you’ll be able to do it, Mark. You can change our worlds, finally make peace. I trust you.’

And then, Donghyuck had quickly leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Mark’s cheek. He still didn’t know why, but as he brushed his fingers over his face he could almost feel it and his heart started going crazy in his chest once more.

“What are you doing here, blushing by yourself?” Renjun hissed, pushing Mark’s shoulder not unkindly.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” Mark probably blushed darker.

“Hm. Thinking of your Dragon boy? Come on, make him proud.” Renjun grinned, eyes flitting up. They were in the tunnel at the entrance to the arena, and Yukhei was on the stands, his black hair slicked back, low cut shirt revealing muscle for days. It was customary for the second best to wait on standby. Were the first champion killed or knocked out, he would be allowed to give it a try. It had happened only a few times during the history of Berk.

It hopefully wouldn’t happen today.

“Renjun?”

“Hm?”

“Just in case something goes wrong… can you go and send Donghyuck away? I know he sticks around on that clearing, but I don’t know why, and it’s not safe there.”

Renjun swallowed visibly. “Yeah. But… promise me nothing will go wrong?”

“I…” Mark couldn’t do that.

And he didn’t have the time, because Yuta came into the tunnel from where he had just announced the fight was about to start to the curious audience.

“Mark? It’s show time.” He grinned and gestured towards the stone arena.

Mark threw Renjun a final smile, before stepping forward. His heart was hammering in his ears, adrenaline making him feel like he was walking of clouds. Doyoung stood to the side, next to the biggest cage where the Monstrous Nightmare was being kept. He nodded towards Mark.

The first step was to choose his weapons. They had put up a wooden wall to which different types of armour were mounted. Hammers, axes, swords, knifes, and, of course, shields.

Mark grabbed a shield first, then opted for a small dagger. There was whispering from above, people making it known what weapon they’d have gone for.

He looked up, seeing his father on the chief’s chair, brows creased in thought. Johnny stood to his left, his aunt to his right. Mark turned to Doyoung.

Now was the day. No turning back. He had to show the village that even a Monstrous Nightmare wasn’t anything to fear.

“I’m ready.”

Doyoung smiled and pulled down the lever. The heavy bolds holding the metal doors shut groaned as they were pushed away by the mechanism, and Doyoung slipped away towards the gated-off tunnel.

It felt like seconds stretched on for hours, while the door slowly opened. Mark’s palms were sweaty, the knife slippery in his hand.

‘I trust you’

This wasn’t just about him. This was also about Donghyuck. His new best friend. That had kissed him on the cheek, causing hours of restless sleep.

Wait a minute. Was that what friends did, or was Mark in…

He never got to finish that thought, because the doors burst open in a storm of flames hot enough to reach Mark in the middle of the big arena. The Dragon escaping its prison roared, skin set aflame, looking just what its name promised: a nightmare.

The audience hollered and Mark went ignored for now, the Dragon flapping its wings to push itself upwards, landing on the bars that kept the arena gated off. People stepped back, as the Dragon ran around, talons clacking where he held itself tight. It blew a flame into the crowd that easily parted to avoid getting hit.

It was agitated, angry. Mark felt his stomach churn. Of course it was, after being trapped for heavens knew how long. This made things much more challenging.

Donghyuck’s smiled flashed in his mind and Mark fixed the Dragon in a glare. It had come to a halt on the chains that built the ceiling, the flames on its body dying. Then, it slowly turned its head, staring right back at mark with orange, slit eyes. Nowhere as pretty as the green ones Donghyuck had.

The Monstrous Nightmare dropped to the floor, slowly creeping towards the human. It was huge, much bigger than a Night Fury, its teeth sticking from its mouth. Mark pushed past his fear and threw away his shield. The people in the crowd were becoming quiet, but he tried to forget about them for now.

Mark’s hand was trembling a little as he reached forward. The nostrils of the Dragon twitched and it scented his hand. Then, Mark started scratching the underside of the elongated chin.

The Dragon started purring loudly and Mark sighed in relief. He looked up, towards his father, who’s mouth was agape.

“These Dragons. They aren’t the evil creatures we thought they were. They’re only aggressive if we are. They don’t go for the kill, if we don’t. They only cause destruction, because we never trained them not to.

“But we can change that. We could live in peace, together with them, instead of against them. If we took the time, we could live a much safer life. No more looking for their nest, no more attacks in the night. It could be….”

“Traitor!” Mark jerked and turned to see who had yelled. “Those are lies to deceive us!”

“No! No, they’re not, I swear look at him, I…”

“Mark Lee is a liar and a traitor, trying to doom us all for death!”

Someone slammed a hammer against the poles of the guard and the Monstrous Nightmare ceased its purring, eyes flying open.

It ripped away from Mark’s hand and flew towards where the shouts had come from, hot fire burning into the audience, that started to scream.

“Everyone, calm down, we have to listen to….” Mark heard his father roar over the people.

“Don’t listen to him. That’s his son! He cannot be trusted!”

“Kill the Dragon!”

“Kill it!”

Mark watched in pure horror, as people started slamming weapons onto the metal poles, riling the Dragon up that started blowing fire aimlessly.

“Mark, get away from here.” Renjun was suddenly by his side.

“No, they’ll kill it, they can’t!” Mark gasped, but the Dragon seemed to recognise them as its target now and dropped on the floor, running towards them.

“One Dragon more or less, Mark this is about you not getting killed.” Renjun yelled, as they tried to get away in a zick-zack pattern.

“Why are you even here?”

“I just came, because you were getting yourself grilled.”

Mark tried to think, but the Dragon snapped its jaws at him, and Mark had to jump away.

“Kill it, kill it, kill it.” The audience was chanting and it felt like a death spell.

Mark tried to calm the Dragon with some grass, but it was much too nervous and aggressive already, so he had to let go of the grass and run farther away.

“Mark, do something, or I will.” Renjun barked.

“No. Donghyuck trusts me.” Mark tried.

Renjun threw a hammer, but the Dragon shook it off and suddenly Mark was pushed from behind. He lost balance and slammed into the stone ground, the chants of “Kill it” not getting softer, but louder instead. His ears rang, as the Dragon pushed him into the ground with a paw on his chest, the talons cutting through the thick leather easily.

“Mark!” his dad’s desperate call echoed over the crowd.

He closed his eyes. His father would have to see him go like this, an assumed traitor.

But then, he heard the tell-tale sound of plasma fire charging.

“NIGHT FURY!”

Something exploded and a moment later, the Monstrous Nightmare was pushed off him and Mark sat up, gasping for air. The black Dragon had its teeth on the red one’s neck, but didn’t bite down for the kill. When he let go, the Monstrous Nightmare backed away. Mark stared at the green eyes, furrowed in anger.

Donghyuck.

He hissed, and the other Dragon fled into the cave it had come from.

Silence was over the arena for a moment, as Donghyuck stepped next to Mark, nudging him carefully, obviously looking for injuries. Mark was way too high on adrenaline to feel anything at the moment. Anything other than fear.

“You have to get away, please, they… they’ll hurt you.” He whispered urgently.

“Kill the beast!”

It was the same voice accusing Mark of being a traitor and Mark tried to push Donghyuck away, but the Dragon wrapped a wing around Mark and didn’t budge.

“No!” Taeyong yelled.

“You don’t get to decide, of course you’ll protect your son. The traitor!”

“But that Dragon is peaceful! He’s confirming what he said!” that was Johnny.

“What about all those that killed?”

“But we killed even more of them. Maybe they were trying to protect their kind just how we did.” Now more people were chiming in.

“One Dragon! That proves nothing!”

“It’s not just one.” A pleasant voice suddenly cut over the arguing warriors, no anger in it, like he just came from knitting with the elderly ladies “If you give them the chance, even the most dangerous Dragons won’t harm you, however, just how bears are more dangerous to us, a certain Dragon kind will also be more hostile. But the mindless slaughter it the true root of evil in this. Ending that would end the war.”

The crowd parted and Jungwoo stepped up. Mark felt his jaw slowly drop. That he had even been watching bordered on a miracle in his mind. But why was he stepping up for him now?

“And why should we believe you? You never even bother to stick around!”

“Quiet! Jungwoo is just as much part of this village as everyone else!” Taeyong interrupted.

“I don’t want to kill Dragons. But notice how none of the Dragons want to kill me either?”

Mark knew Jungwoo’s hut was the oldest in the village, despite having been built only four years ago when he moved there. The rest of the people seemed to know, too, only the few sceptics still talking back.

“If Dragons are so peaceful, then get down there and show that Night Fury won’t just rip you to shreds.”

Jungwoo smiled serenely and made his way to the tunnel. A stunned Yuta and Doyoung let him pass without even moving, and the whole audience seemed to hold its breath. Mark had a hand on Donghyuck. He knew, he wouldn’t do anything. Right?

“Hi there.” Jungwoo softly greeted, as he got closer. Donghyuck eyed him, but didn’t move, only his nose twitched.

The older man reached them, standing right in front of the Dragon. It was so quiet, you could hear the drop of a pin.

“What’s their name?” Jungwoo asked Mark and Mark felt his face heat up. How did Jungwoo know that Mark would know this Dragon’s name?

“Donghyuck.”

“Hi Donghyuck. Are you one for chin scratches?” Jungwoo reached up and Donghyuck finally dropped the stoic behaviour, lowering his head and immediately purring as Jungwoo scratched his scales exactly how Dragons liked it best. Mark’s eyes were zoomed in on the confident movements. How did Jungwoo know that?

“Oh, you’re a cuddly one.” Jungwoo laughed, as Donghyuck started pushing his head towards him and Mark felt an ugly tug of jealousy. Was that dumb? That was definitely dumb!

“That proves nothing.”

“Will someone please make him shut up, I’m getting real fed up here!” Taeyong finally snapped.

“Gladly. Anyone else having doubts about this?” Yukhei asked, flexing his biceps.

Instead, the crowd broke into cheers.

“That’s my boy!” Taeyong hollered over them and the chants that had been so dreadful before, turned into “Mark Lee, Mark Lee, Mark Lee.” now.

It felt like a dream, as he looked up seeing people hug each other.

But then his eyes were drawn back to Jungwoo still petting Donghyuck.

“How did you know?” Mark asked softly and Jungwoo looked up from the black Dragon.

“Oh. Well. Dragons imprinting on humans… it’s not as rare as it might sound.”

“Imprinting?”

Jungwoo blinked, looking between them. Mark was still tugged against Donghyuck’s side, well protected.

“Yes. A means for a Dragon to find their mate. It runs deeper than just love…”

Mark felt his face burn up.

“Lo-love?”

“Oh, he hasn’t told you yet?”

Donghyuck looked at Mark with huge eyes, full of fear, and Mark was about to say something, but the Dragon pulled away as if he got burnt, staggering through the arena, before he took flight and disappeared through the hole he had fired into the metal chains.

“Donghyuck!” Mark yelled, but the Night Fury was already turning into a dot on the sky.

“I’m sorry. I’m sure he’ll come around, a Dragon cannot be too far from their mate for long.” Jungwoo patted his shoulder and Mark nodded weakly.

“Come on, you’re the hero of the day, let’s celebrate!” Mark was suddenly swept off his feet and found himself in the arms of Yuta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
>  
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eeek it's the last chapter!!

Donghyuck wasn’t on the clearing.

Mark searched the woods high and low, wherever he could think of, trying to find the Dragon for three days, until Johnny gently reminded him that his work was piling up in the workshop and Mark reluctantly returned to help.

Honestly, life was good, great even. Within a month, he had found friends, seven of them, he had bulked up a bit, his father was smiling, and he was over his crush on Renjun. Plus there were Dragons peacefully hopping around the village. There was one Deadly Nadder that had adopted an orphan lamb, making him the villages’ most adored Dragon.

But without Donghyuck to share it with, it felt… lonely.

So on the fifth evening, Mark found himself knocking on the green door of Jungwoo’s house, because he didn’t know who else to turn to.

But it wasn’t Jungwoo who opened, but a short, sturdy guy. Mark stumbled backwards in surprise, when he made eye contact and found a pair of purple, slit eyes stare back at him. The guy raised a questioning eyebrow and Mark quickly got over himself.

“Uh… I was looking for Jungwoo? Is he not home?”

“He’s napping. Should I relay a message?”

Mark bit his lip. “Yeah, that’d be great. Uh, I wanted to ask if he might be able to help me find Donghyuck. My… Dragon.” he muttered dejectedly.

“Oh.” Was all the other guy said, before Mark found himself dragged inside. “You’re Mark then? I thought you were some of these airheads… anyway. Do you want some tea?”

Mark wasn’t given the time to answer, as he was shoved onto a plush sofa and a few moments later found a cup of steaming tea in his hand.

“Well, first of all, Mark, I think I owe you a big thank you. Jungwoo told me what you did. You’re the reason I was able to walk through the village in broad sun-light for the first time in my life. I wouldn’t have thought that possible, but apparently I was just being too pessimistic.” The stranger smiled at him and Mark suddenly found the role of the hero overwhelming again. “My name’s Taeil, by the way.”

“I didn’t think I could do it either. It’s all Hyuck. But now he’s gone and…” he choked up. He felt a hand rub over his back.

“He didn’t come back yet?”

“No. I looked for him, but he’s gone. And where I think I might find him, I can’t go. He lives on this island in the ocean, it’s very far up, only accessible by flight.” Mark blinked away tears.

“He showed you?”

“Yeah, we went there to train.”

“But he didn’t tell you anything else?”

Mark shook his head “Not directly. But he said I was his mate to someone else and after Jungwoo said that about imprinting I looked it up and… why did he leave? Does he hate me? Does he not want me as his mate? Maybe he wanted another Dragon?”

“Mark, I don’t know your Dragon personally, but I know for sure that he does want you and nobody else. But he’s probably scared you don’t want him.”

“But…” Mark’s brain rattled “I’m in love with him!”

Taeil smiled, revealing teeth a whole lot more threatening than Donghyuck’s – not a Night Fury then. Which other Dragons were able to shift? Mark would have to ask, but not now.

“If you need someone to fly, I might be able to help you out.”

 

Jungwoo’s eyes hadn’t even been completely opened, but he had wished them the best of luck, before he turned and fell back asleep, leaving Mark to wonder what on earth he had been doing to be that tired, however Taeil didn’t answer that question for him.

The sun had already set, with the moon just past full, the village was bright enough to be able to see. Taeil led Mark further away, before stripping his clothing to shift and when Mark looked back to see the Dragon in his other form, he nearly screamed. Thankfully he was able to hold back. That would have been rude and he really needed the ride!

But the spikes sticking from the purple, grey and black scales on Taeil’s neck and tail, the bulky torso, and slim wings and tail left little doubt. Where the Night Fury was said to be the offspring of lighting, this was the actual lightning: a Skrill.

Taeil leaned his head down a little and Mark wondered if he would get his butt or more sensitive private parts stabbed, however the Dragon didn’t seem to share the worries and he had probably done this before, right?

So, Mark climbed on the small strip that was only hard scales and pushed his hands so they kind of guarded his crotch. Compared to the Night Fury, the Skrill was slimmer and smaller, but Taeil pushed off into the air just as gracefully and effortlessly despite his extra weight.

 

Finding the island in the dark proved to be difficult, but Taeil was patient and adjusted his course as many times as Mark needed him to. When it finally came into sight, Mark almost sobbed in relief.

Now Donghyuck only had to actually be home. Mark had never wished for anything this badly in his life!

Taeil landed him safely and Mark stabbed his finger on a spike on his way down. There were lumps of fast asleep Dragon scattered where he and Donghyuck had trained, and Mark felt nervousness make him shaky.

Because whether or not he’d find Donghyuck here, someone would definitely be home: Jaehyun. Who hated humans.

So, Mark made sure to stick to Taeil’s side, the Dragon shuffling peacefully next to him, as they approached the cave.

“Donghyuck?” Mark called, not daring to get any closer.

And his instincts proved him right, because a burst of flames came from the opening, burning up just a few steps in front of where Mark stood, making the human flinch.

A moment later, the tall figure of Jaehyun appeared, eyes glowing yellow.

“What do you want here? How did you even… Taeil?”

He seemed to forget about Mark rudely appearing on his doorstep and came running towards them. With a rip, Taeil was back to human form.

“Hey Jaehyun.”

But the other Night Fury didn’t speak, he left out a heart-breaking sob and threw himself around Taeil’s shoulders. Mark stared in utter confusion, as Taeil tried to sooth the upset Dragon.

“I-I-I though you-you were de-de-dead.” Jaehyun hiccupped and Mark felt very much like an intruder to this personal and private moment.

“Jaehyunnie, I’m so sorry, but why did you think that? I told you I was going to find my mate, not I was going to get myself killed.”

“But you never returned and he’s a human and so…” Jaehyun, who had multiple times threatened and twice tried to fry Mark to a crisp, was blubbering worse that his little cousin. This was an unexpected turn of events. Mark kind of understood why he hated humans. After all, he used to hate Dragons as well. But now it sounded like he had jumped to some very interesting conclusions there.

Speaking of hating Dragons, Mark looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of Donghyuck. But maybe he actually wasn’t here?

Jaehyun slowly calmed down, clutching onto Taeil like his life depended on it, before his eyes landed on Mark again.

“Ew. What are you still doing here?”

“Thanks, it’s nice to meet you again, too.”

“Where should he have gone? Say, Jaehyun, do you know a Donghyuck?”

“Oh. Yeah. He decided he was going to live with me, not so long after you left. I tried to scare him away, but he was rather stubborn about it.”

“Do you know where he is right now?” Mark asked urgently.

“I do.” A shadow rushed past them, shaped oddly like a Night Fury, that jumped into the sky and fled the scene. “You know, he just left. Sorry.”

But Mark was already running towards the edge of the island, following the black Dragon.

“Donghyuck! Come back! Please! I need to tal-aaaaah.”

Maybe, it would have been smart to look where he was going. Maybe, it would have been smart to be especially careful with sudden drops to his death, when he was waltzing around a not that big island very far above the ocean with nice little spiky rocks underneath. Maybe, it would have been great to at least tell Donghyuck how he felt before his death and Mark had definitely intended to tell his dad he was sort of in love with a Dragon, however the realisation had been very recent and he hadn’t had the chance to do so yet.

Mark watched in worry as the ocean and the rocks came closer and closer, as his fall got faster and that’d not be a pretty picture… But just as he was about to turn into scrambled Mark, he was grabbed from the air and pulled sideways.

He looked up to see the pitch-black outline of a Dragon, and then the Night Fury turned its head and bright green eyes looked back at Mark.

The wind was stinging in his eyes, so he couldn’t stop a few tears from falling, as he clutched against the Dragon. “I love you, Donghyuck! Please don’t run away from me, because I need you by my side!”

Donghyuck flew up steeply and they reached one of the smaller isles, where Mark was dropped gently, the Dragon landed a few steps away, but immediately turned forms. He didn’t even get the chance to sit up, when Donghyuck threw himself on top of him, squeezing him in a tight hug.

“I’m so sorry for leaving you!” Donghyuck whispered and Mark brought his arms up to hug back, Donghyuck a few degrees warmer than himself. “I… did you mean that, that you love me?” Donghyuck’s voice broke. “Because if you’d rather be with Renjun, I’d totally understand.”

“No! No, I’ve not been crushing on Renjun for a bit now. Well, actually ever since I met you. I only like you!”

Donghyuck fully pulled away, fixing Mark with his beautiful eyes, the first thing Mark had noticed around the Dragon.

And then, he suddenly leaned closer and before he knew it, he felt Donghyuck’s lips on his. They were soft and warm, and Mark made a surprised squeak, that was so lame…

“I love you, too. Oh my Dragon Scale, I can’t believe I said that, this is so cheesy. Yuk!” Donghyuck shook himself, then grabbed a surprised Mark’s face and pressed another kiss to his lips.

Well, Mark could definitely get used to this.

“Donghyuck, I don’t remember giving you permission to kiss any questionable young men you just found!”

“Shut up Jaehyun, you’re not my mom!”

“You’re too young to get mated yet!”

“Jaehyunnie, didn’t you say you didn’t even care for Donghyuck that much?”

“I… I don’t. What are you even talking about? Go, live with your stinky humans, see if I care.”

“You know, there’s still more than enough room to move to Berk.”

“Oh yeah? So I see even more of those mammals? No thanks.”

Mark tuned the bickering out, as he pulled down Donghyuck for another kiss.

 

This is Berk.

It snows nine months of the year and hails the other three.

Any food that grows here is tough and bitter.

The people that live here are rough and stubborn, as cold as the weather. Save for when Mark Lee, the only son of the most feared and respected chief the village had seen in its seven generations of existence, had introduced his boyfriend, a tan boy with curly hair, that smiled to reveal teeth a little to sharp and had eyes a piercing green colour with slit pupils. According to the stories, Lee Taeyong had fainted, and woken up with the words “Well better than marrying someone from Hopeless.”.

But the biggest perk are the pets.

You see, other places have ponies, or parrots.

They have Dragons!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, this was so much fun to write!! Thank you for everyone who stuck around, special thanks to all the commenters, your support is such a motivation to write <3
> 
> [Art of Mark and Donghyuck](https://twitter.com/BaeksHyuck/status/1166820520626704384) 
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


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